Facelina rhodopos Yonow, 2000

These specimens appear to match the recently described Facelina rhodopos. However, I'm not 100 percent sure the bottom photo on this page is the same as the others. The bottom photo is one of two specimens found together at night on an Enewetak lagoon pinnacle at a depth of 12 meters. The specimen measured 25mm. The rest of the pictures of the brownish-tinged animals were all taken on Kwajalein Atoll's leeward seaward reef, where these nudibranchs are found at night in ledges at depths of 10 to 20 meters.

They often are associated with Millepora fire coral. At first we thought they may just be eating hydroids that are often found around the coral, but the following two photos suggest they may be eating the animals out of the yellow-brown fire coral itself. There were two of the eolids (only one shown) on the white tracks of dead coral skeleton in the colony of fire coral below.

Created 8 January 2007
Updated 5 January 2009