Phyllidia exquisita Brunckhorst, 1993

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 : 597

Phyllidia exquisita Brunckhorst, 1993

Only three specimens of Phyllidia exquisita were present in our collections (Fig. 5.1a, b). The main background colour is grey to white, with two or four distinct longitudinal black lines, forming a reticulate pattern across the midline in one specimen (Phex18B12, Fig. 5.1b). Each lateral black line forms 4–6 scallops to the mantle margin. In some specimens, some single, black, small- to middle-sized, round tubercles are present, highly disguised, on the black lines. The white tubercles are usually single and the larger ones are capped by yellow-gold. The yellow mantle margin is characteristic of this species, mainly along the anterior rim, more seldom along the sides. The anal opening lies on the greyish white part of the notum, behind the last large posterior tubercle. Our three specimens group with the only P. exquisita sequence available from GenBank (KY235923) provided by Stoffels et al. (2016) from a specimen (not illustrated) from Ternate, Indonesia .