---
title: Pink-eared Rainbow Dorid (Goniobranchus verrieri)
scientific_name: Goniobranchus verrieri
common_name: Pink-eared Rainbow Dorid
taxon: Nudibranch
published: 2026-08-26T11:10:34.446Z
updated: 2026-08-26T12:37:40.917Z
tags: Pink-eared Rainbow Dorid, Goniobranchus verrieri, Nudibranch, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/molluscs/nudibranch/pink-eared-rainbow-dorid
---

# Pink-eared Rainbow Dorid (*Goniobranchus verrieri*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Nudibranch (*Nudibranchia*)
- **Size:** up to 1.7 cm
- **Diet:** Spongivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Sponge-covered reef and rubble, in the open by day
- **Reproduction:** Simultaneous hermaphrodite, Egg layer
- **Hazard:** Poisonous

## How to recognise it

- white body with two bands at the margin: red on the outside, orange inside it
- the order of the two bands is the identification, not their presence
- rhinophores pink to red, standing up clear of the white back
- under two centimeters, and often photographed larger than it is

There is a specific skill this section demands, and this animal is a good place to practice it. Small white slug, colored rim: that description fits at least six species on this reef, and the way through is not color but structure. Count the bands at the margin, then note their order from the outside in.

On this one there are exactly two. The outer band is red, the inner band is orange, and they run as clean concentric lines around an otherwise plain white mantle. Not spots that merge into a line. Not a single band with a paler edge to it. Two bands, red then orange, and no other markings on the back.

The rhinophores are the second check and the reason for the English name: pink to red, standing up clear of the white body, easy to see even on an animal under two centimeters (0.7 in).

Why that margin is colored at all comes down to what is stored in it. Chromodorids take chemical defenses out of the sponges they eat and concentrate them toward the mantle edge, so the rim is both the most defended part of the animal and the part an attacker meets first, and the bands are a label on it. When a small slug like this crawls over open reef in daylight without hurrying, that is not carelessness. It is a species that expects to be seen and has arranged for it to end badly.

## Also known as

- **English:** Pink-eared Rainbow Dorid
- **French:** Doris de Verrier
- **Portuguese:** Nudibrânquio-branco-de-contorno-enferrujado
- **Japanese:** ミナミシラヒメウミウシ
- **Russian:** Гониобранхус Верье

## Scientific synonyms

- *Chromodoris marginata* (Pease, 1860)
- *Chromodoris verrieri* (Crosse, 1875)
- *Doris marginata* Pease, 1860
- *Glossodoris marginata* (Pease, 1860)
- *Glossodoris verrieri* (Crosse, 1875)
- *Goniodoris verrieri* Crosse, 1875

## Range

Mozambique

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/molluscs/nudibranch/pink-eared-rainbow-dorid)*
*Updated: August 26, 2026*