Phyllodesmium jacobsenae (Phyllodesmium jakobsenae)

Mimicry in Mimicry! This is one of my 'dream-encounter' even though I didn't realised it during the dive. Only noticed the Xenia Shrimp - Alcyonohippolyte commensalis on the cerata of the Phyllodesmium jakobsenae when going through my video footages a week after the dive! And luckily, I have just this one decent shot showing the Shrimp on the Nudibranch.

This Phyllodesmium jakobsenae Nudibranch mimics its host the Xenia Corals and also feeds on them.
The Xenia Shrimp can be found on the polyps of the Xenia Corals with similar colouration and markings/patterns, making them very difficult to find/see as they are very small, usually less than 1 cm in size.

Close-up of the Shrimp can be seen here :
https://www.jungledragon.com/image/47220/can_you_find_me.html Anilao,Batangas,Mimicry,Nudibranch,Philippines,Phyllodesmium jacobsenae,Phyllodesmium jakobsenae

Appearance

This species contains zooxanthellae of the genus ''Symbiodinium'' in the digestive gland . It grows to 30 mm in length.

Aeolid Nudibranch - Phyllodesmium jacobsenae This nudibranch - Phyllodesmium jacobsenae can be very cryptic in its food host, the Xenia coral.
This picture was taken to try to show its beauty without the need of variety of colours. Geotagged,Philippines,Phyllodesmium jacobsenae,Phyllodesmium jakobsenae

Distribution

The distribution of ''Phyllodesmium jakobsenae'' includes Bunaken Island, North Sulawesi, Indonesia and the Philippines.Rudman, W.B., 2005 [In] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney.

Nudibranch - Phyllodesmium jacobsenae This nudibranch - Phyllodesmium jacobsenae mimics the host, Xenia Corals which is also its food source.
In the picture, there are 2 of them. The one on the left is clearer to see as its rhinopores and oral tentacles can be clearly seen. The second one on the right is rested with its rhinopores and oral tentacles retracted and hidden, making them hardly visible as separate animal to the Xenia corals.

To better see this Nudibranch, here is another picture of them :

https://www.jungledragon.com/image/43335/aeolid_nudibranch_-_phyllodesmium_jacobsenae.html
Anilao,Batangas,Geotagged,Philippines,Phyllodesmium jacobsenae,Phyllodesmium jakobsenae,Summer,nudibranch

Habitat

''Phyllodesmium jakobsenae'' feeds on the soft coral ''Xenia''.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

Taxonomy
Kingdom	Animalia
Division	Mollusca
Class	Gastropoda
Order	Nudibranchia
Family	Myrrhinidae
Genus	Phyllodesmium
Species	P. jakobsenae

Photographed in
Indonesia
Philippines