I now have to name one of my girlchildren Flabellina.
National Geographic has an amazing gallery of Nudibranch pictures that all of you should check out. Here are a couple of my favorites:
Flabellina exoptata
Nembrotha kubaryana
A quartet of Risbecia tryoni nudibranchs show the beginnings of trailing behavior, in which the animals follow one another's slime trails, each hot on the tail of the next. (It often occurs in pairs.) Scientists once thought trailing was related to mating, but evidence is thin; its true purpose remains unknown.
Chromodoris dianae
Bornella anguilla flees danger by folding in its appendages and swimming like an eel.
Built to feed exclusively on corals like this spindly gorgonian, a translucent 1.7-inch-long Phyllodesmium iriomotense houses its branching digestive gland within tentacle-like cerata-outgrowths the animal can shed if under attack. This species is one of the few colorless nudibranchs.
Looking more flora than fauna, a plate-size "solar powered" nudibranch-Phyllodesmium longicirrum-farms zooxanthellae algae within its own body. Feeding on the soft coral Sarcophyton, the nudibranch pilfers algal cells and hoards them within its digestive system, which fills the paddle-shaped appendages called cerata. Stored just beneath the skin, the algae capture light energy, producing nutrients that can sustain the nudibranch for months. The same chemicals that feed the animal are also exuded from its skin as a defensive shield.
Ceratosoma gracillimum
Phyllidia ocellata
With a flip of its skirt, Hexabranchus sanguineus can flee danger by taking to the open sea-a skill many of its cousins lack. Known as the Spanish dancer, the species is a giant among nudibranchs; some grow to a foot and a half, on a diet strictly of sponges. When not flashing its contrasting mantle colors to distract predators, the animal is actually camouflaged in its habitat.
Thecacera pacifica