Thecacera picta

Order : NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder : EUCTENIDIACEA
Infraorder : DORIDACEA
Superfamily : POLYCEROIDEA
Family : Polyceridae
Subfamily : Polycerinae

DISTRIBUTION
Originally recorded from Japan, and since from northwestern Australia. Records in the Forum from the Indian Ocean (Maldives) and various islands in tropical western Pacific.

Thecacera picta is characterized by its colour pattern of black spots forming more or less complete longitudinal lines on the translucent whitish body. There are usually black lines running from the oral tentacles to the rhinophores, then to the extrabranchial processes. The extrabranchial processes are translucent whitish with a diffuse dark grey/black region in the outer third, a broad orange/red subapical ring, and in many specimens opaque white apices. The rhinophores are translucent whitish with a diffuse dark grey/black region in the outer third, merging into orange/red below the tips. The extrarhinophoral processes are basally dark grey/black, then bright orange/red with opaque white apices. It feeds on bryozoan colonies.