Elegant Phyllidia

About this species

Phyllidia elegans, also known as the elegant phyllidia, is a species of sea slug, a dorid nudibranch, a shell-less marine gastropod mollusk in the family Phyllidiidae. It is found in shallow water in the Red Sea and the tropical Indo-Pacific region.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Phyllidia elegans”, 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: 141 records
February: 167 records
March: 188 records
April: 191 records
May: 194 records
June: 168 records
July: 176 records
August: 152 records
September: 122 records
October: 167 records
November: 170 records
December: 199 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 5–23 m · Deepest record: 92.5 m

0–10 m: 20 records
10–20 m: 68 records
20–30 m: 14 records
30–40 m: 1 records
40–50 m: 0 records
50–60 m: 0 records
60–70 m: 0 records
70–80 m: 0 records
80–90 m: 0 records
90–100 m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 19–30 °C

18–20 °C: 7 records
20–22 °C: 0 records
22–24 °C: 7 records
24–26 °C: 28 records
26–28 °C: 40 records
28–30 °C: 172 records

Photos

(c) Dan Schofield, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Dan Schofield · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Dan Schofield, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Bart, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Daniel Eisenhauer, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) portioid, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Elegant Phyllidia

Names in 4 more languages

French: Phyllidie élégante
Japanese: ツノキイボウミウシ
Thai: ทากเปลือยปุ่มขาวเหลือง
Simplified Chinese: 華美葉海牛, 華美葉海蛞蝓

Similar species

Heavenly Wart Slug
Phyllidia coelestis
Ocellated Wart Slug
Phyllidia ocellata
Black-rayed phyllidia
Phyllidia picta
Variable Wart Slug
Phyllidia varicosa
Polkadot Nudibranch
Phyllidia polkadotsa
Pustular phyllidia
Phyllidiella pustulosa

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).
752 open-data records from 1869 to 2026.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.