#cerata

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.

Alabaster Nudibranch- Dirona albolineata

Fish (and divers) are very likely to swim right by the camouflaged Phyllodesmium jakobsenae nudibranch.

Nudibranchs

Photo: Brent Durand

Dorid nudibranchs, like this Felimare Californiensis, can taste very bitter, and as a result, are left alone on the reef.

This dragon nudibranch packs a punch if a predator is foolish enough to touch its cerata.

Beautiful lacy gills of an orange peel nudibranch

Tochuina gigantea

March 2019

Salt Creek, Washington