Harlequin Flame

About this species

Janolus savinkini, common name purple-tipped janolus, is a colorful sea slug, an arminina nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Janolidae. The body and caruncle of this species are yellow with a hue of light orange. The papillae and cerata are also this colour except for the tips, which are blue/purple, hence the common name. It is found in East Asian waters and is believed to be extremely rare in Okinawa.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Janolus savinkini”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

Loading the map

Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 25 records
February: 23 records
March: 24 records
April: 22 records
May: 13 records
June: 14 records
July: 7 records
August: 8 records
September: 16 records
October: 14 records
November: 9 records
December: 10 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 10–26 m · Deepest record: 42.7 m

0–10 m: 4 records
10–20 m: 16 records
20–30 m: 24 records
30–40 m: 1 records
40–50 m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 20–29 °C

18–20 °C: 2 records
20–22 °C: 11 records
22–24 °C: 1 records
24–26 °C: 7 records
26–28 °C: 2 records
28–30 °C: 26 records

Photos

(c) Ewout Knoester, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Bart, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ewout Knoester, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Georgina Jones, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Gregor Bailar, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Georgina Jones, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Harlequin Flame

Names in 2 more languages

French: Janolus de Savinkin
Simplified Chinese: 薩維金尼亞努斯海牛

Similar species

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).
52 open-data records from 1989 to 2026.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.