Phyllidiella rosans (Bergh, 1873)

(Figure 20 E–F)

Material examined. One specimen. ZMBN117065, POD, 11 May 2014, 16m, 32mm.

Habitats. Subtropical rocky reef.

Occurrences. Ponta do Ouro.

Geographic distribution. Indo-west, central Pacific. Hawaii (Brunckhorst 1993; Gosliner et al. 2008), French Polynesia (Brunckhorst 1993), Japan, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Marshall Islands, Oman, Maldives (Gosliner et al. 2008), British Indian Ocean Territory (Yonow et al. 2002), India (Apte 2009; Remakrishna et al. 2010), Mauritius, Réunion Island (Brunckhorst 1993) and Mozambique.

Remarks. This species has several pink longitudinal ridges formed by rounded tubercles. The foot sole is grey and the oral tentacles are pale grey (Brunckhorst 1993). This species resembles P. zeylanica but it can be distinguished in the field by its ventral colouration and smooth tubercles. This species is likely to be part of a species complex as the ridges are more frequently interrupted in Pacific Ocean specimens than in Indian Ocean animals (Gosliner et al. 2008). The collected specimen exhibited two mid-dorsal ridge interruptions posterior to the rhinophores.