An uncommon dendronotid on hydroid colonies, with a scalloped ridge running down each side.
A slender dendronotid to about 3 cm, translucent orange, pink, yellow or cream, with a low ridge running along each side of the back from behind the head to the tail. The ridge is scalloped into a row of rounded lobes and papillae, so the outline of the animal is broken into a series of small projections rather than a smooth line or a set of separate cerata. The rhinophores stand in tall sheaths whose rims are drawn out into papillae of their own.
It lives on hydroids and feeds on the polyps, and the shape and colour are close enough to a hydroid stem carrying its own growth that the animal is normally found by working over a colony slowly rather than by scanning. Colonies on rubble, dead shell, wreckage and jetty structure are the places to work.
Records are thin. The genus is uncommon everywhere in the region, the animals are small, several of those photographed have no settled species name, and this entry is pitched at the genus for that reason. Doto, on the same colonies and at a smaller size, is the animal it is most likely to be confused with, and that genus carries two rows of separate beaded cerata rather than a continuous scalloped ridge. Recorded from about 5 to 30 m.
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.
