Melibe spp.
Look for a hood-shaped head net over the reef in Luzon or Queensland: Melibe nudibranchs are an uncommon year-round find on tropical to temperate reefs.
Recognised by an oversized, hood-like oral net at the front of the body used to catch prey, rather than the visible gills or bright colours of most nudibranchs. Bodies are usually translucent to pale, with fleshy, leaf-like projections (cerata) running down the back that can look almost plant-like against the substrate. Size varies a lot between species in this genus, and the whole animal often reads as a soft, gelatinous shape rather than a classic slug outline. Some species give off a distinct, fruity or melon-like smell if disturbed, which experienced divers use as a secondary clue.
Divers most often find them crawling slowly over algae, seagrass or rubble, periodically flaring that oversized oral hood open and snapping it shut to trap small crustaceans drifting past. They are unhurried and show little reaction to divers or torches, which makes them an easy subject once spotted, though their translucent bodies and slow pace mean they are frequently overlooked entirely. Night dives and slow, close-focus searches on silty or weedy bottoms tend to turn them up more than open reef scans.
That oral hood is not just for show: some Melibe species can swim, thrashing their body from side to side to escape predators, which is unusual behaviour for a nudibranch.
No clear seasonal pattern shows up in the data, and with a recorded temperature range from roughly 8 to 29 C, this genus tolerates everything from cool temperate water to warm tropical reefs, so sightings are best treated as possible year-round rather than tied to a particular month.
Most consistently logged across the Philippines, particularly Luzon, Palawan, Mindanao and the Visayas, and in Australia, especially Queensland and Western Australia. Indonesia also turns up strong numbers, with further sightings reported from Thailand, Cuba, Egypt, Venezuela and Colombia's Caribbean coast, so this is a genus with a wide, mixed tropical-to-temperate spread.
Mapping where Melibe is logged…
The strongest sightings come from the Philippines (Luzon, Palawan, Mindanao, the Visayas) and Australia (Queensland, Western Australia), with further records from Indonesia, Thailand, Cuba, Egypt, Venezuela and Colombia.
There is no strong seasonal pattern in the data, and the genus tolerates a wide temperature range from cool temperate to warm tropical water, so it is best treated as a year-round possibility on the reefs where it is found.
Look for a translucent, gelatinous body with an oversized, hood-shaped oral net at the front rather than obvious gill plumes, plus soft leaf-like projections along the back. The overall shape reads more like a delicate net-and-frill animal than a typical slug.
Size is not fixed for this group and varies considerably between the different species within the genus, from small to fairly large by nudibranch standards.
Instead of grazing on sponges or algae like most nudibranchs, Melibe uses its expandable oral hood like a net, flaring it open over the substrate or water column and snapping it shut to trap small crustaceans.
No. They have no sting or bite that affects divers and can be observed and photographed safely at close range without any special precautions.
Site and sighting data is aggregated from diver logs, iNaturalist and GBIF. For taxonomy and conservation status:
Blue Dragon
3,163 sites
