Coryphella verrucosa

Coryphella verrucosa, is a species of sea slug, an aeolid nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Coryphellidae.

[2] Animals from British Columbia and Alaska differ significantly in colour pattern and are probably a sibling species, described as Coryphella longicaudata O'Donoghue, 1922.

The tail is elongated and pointed with a mid-dorsal line of opaque white pigment in which there are round translucent spots.

In the United Kingdom, it lives almost exclusively on the oaten pipes hydroid (Tubularia indivisa) whilst the juveniles have a wider diet range.

[11] As in most other Aeolid nudibranchs Coryphella verrucosa has the ability to incorporate nematocysts from its prey into the tissue of its cerata as a defence.

[12] It was found experimentally that when the nudibranch was kept in the vicinity of certain predators such as the common sunstar (Crossaster papposus), the bergall (Tautogolabrus adspersus) (a fish) and the shore crab Carcinus maenas, it incorporated more nematocysts than it did in a predator-free environment.