Weird word, colorful creatures: The word is nudibranch (NEW-dih-bronk), a group of soft-bodied marine mollusks that shed their shells after their larval stage. Pictured above, a pilgrim hervia, which is a small and characteristically colorful nudibranch measuring between one to two inches that is very common in the Mediterranean. The sea slugs feed on hydroids and can preserve their stinging cells at the end of hornlike extensions, called cerata. That threat of stinging keeps many predators at bay.
PHOTOGRAPH BY @GREG.LECOEUR












