Starback Tentacled Dorid
Asteronotus cespitosus
- Usual depth1–20 m
- Water temperature20–30 °C
- Best monthsJanuary, May, and October
- How commonRare
Photo credit: (c) Cricket Raspet, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
About this species
Asteronotus cespitosus is a species of sea slug or dorid nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Discodorididae.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Asteronotus cespitosus”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article
Where and when
Where it has been recorded
Worldwide
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Best months
Worldwide (open data)
- January: 44 records
- February: 33 records
- March: 43 records
- April: 41 records
- May: 48 records
- June: 27 records
- July: 43 records
- August: 33 records
- September: 42 records
- October: 49 records
- November: 32 records
- December: 24 records
Depth and water temperature
Depth
Mostly recorded at 1–20 m · Deepest record: 32 m
Water temperature
Recorded in surface water of 20–30 °C
Photos
(c) Ewout Knoester, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist 
(c) Ken-ichi Ueda, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) Ewout Knoester, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist 
no rights reserved · CC0 1.0 · iNaturalist 
(c) Rachael Kaiser, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) Matt B, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) Cricket Raspet, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
Names and classification
- English
- Starback Tentacled Dorid, Clumpy Nudibranch
Names in 4 more languages
- French
- Astéronotus verruqueux
- Japanese
- コバンウミウシ
- Thai
- ทากเปลือยขรุขระ
- Simplified Chinese
- 草皮星背海蛞蝓
Other scientific names: Asteronotus brassica, Asteronotus fuscus, Asteronotus hemprichi, Asteronotus mabilla, Asteronotus wardianus, Doris cespitosus, Doris mabilla, Jorunna marchadi
Similar species
Pancake AphelodorisAphelodoris varia
Sources and credits
Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).
- Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
- Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
- Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
- 163 open-data records from 1824 to 2026.
- Species data updated October 26, 2026.
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