Desirable Flabellina

About this species

Coryphellina exoptata, which can be translated as the much-desired flabellina or desirable flabellina, common name “Cole’s nudibranch”, is a species of colourful sea slug, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Flabellinidae.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Coryphellina exoptata”, 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: 142 records
February: 135 records
March: 152 records
April: 188 records
May: 171 records
June: 137 records
July: 157 records
August: 162 records
September: 168 records
October: 173 records
November: 193 records
December: 179 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 7–22 m · Deepest record: 38.1 m

0–10 m: 32 records
10–20 m: 88 records
20–30 m: 19 records
30–40 m: 4 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 19–30 °C

18–20 °C: 7 records
20–22 °C: 14 records
22–24 °C: 14 records
24–26 °C: 22 records
26–28 °C: 19 records
28–30 °C: 159 records

Photos

(c) portioid, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Dan Schofield, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) 呂一起(Lyu yi-chi), some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Georgina Jones, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Kai Squires, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ben Costamagna, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Robin White, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Desirable Flabellina

Names in 3 more languages

French: Flabelline de la passion
Japanese: アデヤカミノウミウシ
Simplified Chinese: 擴展扇羽海蛞蝓, 火焰扇羽海蛞蝓

Other scientific names: Flabellina exoptata

Similar species

Purple Flabellina
Coryphellina rubrolineata

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).
632 open-data records from 1981 to 2026.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.