Phyllidia elegans Bergh, 1869

Papu, Adelfia, Bogdanov, AleXander, Bara, Robert, Kehraus, Stefan, König, Gabriele M., YonoW, Nathalie & Wägele, Heike, 2022, Phyllidiidae (Nudibranchia, Heterobranchia, Gastropoda): an integrative taxonomic approach including chemical analyses, Organisms Diversity & Evolution (New York, N. Y.) 22 (3), pp. 585-629 : 595

Phyllidia elegans Bergh, 1869

The 40 specimens of Phyllidia elegans (Fig. 4.1a–d) are oval and broad, somewhat flattened in shape, and their dorsal background colours are white, grey, or pale green with narrow black lines. The white granulated tubercles form three interrupted ridges along the back and are usually capped with yellow or orange. The rhinophores are golden yellow or orange, the same colour as the tubercles. The foot sole possesses a longitudinal black line; the elongated tapering oral tentacles are pale white to cream. Some of our specimens were green and not pink as described in the literature (e.g., Brunckhorst, 1993), and some had no gold colouration on the dorsum but the rhinophores were gold (e.g., Phaly16Bu1, Fig. 4.1d). Of the 40 specimens collected from Sulawesi, we were able to sequence 34 that group with an additional 22 sequences of P. elegans downloaded from NCBI. Intraspecific variability is up to nearly 4% within the monophyletic clade (Table S4). The metabolome of P. elegans is very similar to P. coelestis and is described in detail below.