Dendrodoris tuberculosa (Quoy & Gaimard, 1832)

Dendrodoris tuberculosa is similar in appearance to D. carbunculosa, but it tends to be smaller and its dorsal tubercles tend to be more crowded together. Fairly rare in the Marshalls, the few specimens found have generally been on lagoon and seaward reefs under rocks or in lagoon Halimeda patches. The animals come in a range of colors, and at times in seems that no two are alike.

Here are close-ups of the rhinophores and gills.

One easy way to distinguish Dendrodoris tuberculosa from D. carbunculosa is to turn it over. D. tuberculosa has a spotted underside as seen in the two photos below. In D. carbunculosa, the underside is a uniform color.

Even the undersides can exhibit considerable color variation. The underside above goes with the second D. tuberculosa photo on this page. The underside below goes with the first specimen figured at the top of this page.

The specimen below was found on 21 July 2008 in a lagoon Halimeda patch at about 9m depth. Just how many color forms are there?

Created 25 December 2006
Updated 28 July 2008