Australian Blue Dragon

About this species

Pteraeolidia ianthina is a sea slug, an aeolid nudibranch in the family Facelinidae. It is known as a blue dragon, a name it shares with Glaucus atlanticus and Glaucus marginatus.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Pteraeolidia ianthina”, 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: 186 records
February: 117 records
March: 210 records
April: 178 records
May: 133 records
June: 126 records
July: 143 records
August: 191 records
September: 313 records
October: 208 records
November: 418 records
December: 203 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 6–17 m · Deepest record: 64 m

0–10 m: 76 records
10–20 m: 109 records
20–30 m: 9 records
30–40 m: 0 records
40–50 m: 0 records
50–60 m: 0 records
60–70 m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 18–30 °C

16–18 °C: 1 records
18–20 °C: 3 records
20–22 °C: 46 records
22–24 °C: 6 records
24–26 °C: 82 records
26–28 °C: 26 records
28–30 °C: 174 records

Photos

(c) Bryce Watts-Parker, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) bughntr, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Kai Squires, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Eldon E Ball, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Bryce Watts-Parker, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ben Jobson, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Lawrence Hylton, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Australian Blue Dragon, Australian Blue Dragon Nudibranch

Names in 3 more languages

Japanese: ムカデミノウミウシ
Thai: ทากเปลือยขนม่วง
Simplified Chinese: 紫色變翼海蛞蝓

Other scientific names: Flabellina ianthina

Similar species

Blue dragon
Pteraeolidia semperi
Sunrise Tentacle Aeolid
Caloria indica
Lined cratena
Cratena lineata
Black-horned Egg-eater
Favorinus tsuruganus
Ornate facelinid
Austraeolis ornata
Military Tentacle Aeolid
Caloria militaris

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).
967 open-data records from 1864 to 2026.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.