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Opisthobranch of the Week Data
Taxonomy:
Bornella stellifer is considered to be very rare on Okinawa as I have seen and collected a total of only two individuals over a period of many years of diving here. The two animals were collected from different locations in relatively deep water during March of 1997, 28 days apart.
Bornella stellifer is one of two species of Bornella currently found on Okinawa; the other species is B. anguilla. When disturbed, both of these attractive bornellids swim with a lateral undulation of the body and the two are superficially similar in appearance to each other, but the large paddle-like extra-branchial processes of B. anguilla readily separate the two. Like other members of the family, B. stellifer is a hydroid predator and both of the collected individuals were found in dense colonies of feather-like hydroids.
