Protoaeolidiella atra Baba, 1955

Protoaeolidiella atra is not especially uncommon in the Marshalls if you're willing to examine closely every bush of the right kind of hydroid, tentatively identified as Solanderia fusca, that you come across. Even looking close they are hard to see. It is often easiest to look for the egg masses wrapped around the hydroid branches as on the left side of the lower photo below. Most often they are found on the leeward seaward reef slope at depths of 10 to 15 meters.

In the photo below, the eggs are on the left and the nudibranch over near the right side.

Created 8 January 2007