The plainest member of the blue-and-black group, and the one used to identify the rest.
A chromodorid to about 4 cm, pale blue-white to lavender with a single black line running down the middle of the back and a black line inside each mantle margin — three lines, no more — and a fine pale border outside them. The gill plume and rhinophores are a plain translucent lilac to pale orange, without the white specks of Chromodoris willani and without the orange skirt of C. annae. It is the plainest member of the group, and the one the others are most easily read against.
Feeds on sponges, chiefly Semitryonia, and carries the sponge’s defensive compounds in the mantle rim. It belongs to the mimicry ring that includes annae, willani, elisabethina and dianae, all of which advertise unpalatability with versions of the same blue-and-black signal. Common on rubble and rock across the Indo-Pacific from about 3 to 30 m. Pairs and white spiral egg ribbons are frequently found on the food sponge.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.
