---
title: Ribboned Rainbow Dorid (Mexichromis lemniscata)
scientific_name: Mexichromis lemniscata
common_name: Ribboned Rainbow Dorid
taxon: Nudibranch
published: 2026-08-28T06:34:10.832Z
updated: 2026-08-28T12:03:53.350Z
tags: Ribboned Rainbow Dorid, Mexichromis lemniscata, Nudibranch, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/molluscs/nudibranch/ribboned-rainbow-dorid
---

# Ribboned Rainbow Dorid (*Mexichromis lemniscata*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Nudibranch (*Nudibranchia*)
- **Size:** up to 2.3 cm
- **Diet:** Spongivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Rare
- **Habitat:** Sponge-covered reef and rubble
- **Reproduction:** Simultaneous hermaphrodite, Egg layer
- **Hazard:** Poisonous

## How to recognise it

- parallel ribbons running the length of the body, not spots and not a network
- violet band at the margin, then white, then orange and magenta lines inside it
- rhinophores and gills violet with orange at the base
- small: a little over two centimeters

Lemniscus is Latin for a ribbon, the kind hung from a victor's wreath, and lemniscata means wearing them. It is the most accurate species name in this section.

The animal is a set of parallel ribbons laid down the length of its body. At the outer edge a violet band. Inside that, white. Inside that, lines of orange and deep magenta running fore and aft, following the outline of the mantle rather than crossing it. The rhinophores and the gill plume are violet with orange at their bases, picking up the same two colors. Nothing on the back is a spot, nothing is a network, and nothing runs across the animal: it is all lengthwise, and that alone separates it from every other small chromodorid here.

The regional book describes this species in two words, distinct colors, which is an understatement of some magnitude for one of the more spectacular animals on the reef.

Underneath the paintwork it is a chromodorid and works like one. It grazes sponges, holds their chemical defenses in the mantle instead of breaking them down, and concentrates them toward the rim. A slug barely two centimeters (0.9 in) long that crawls about in daylight in that livery is not taking a risk. It is making an announcement.

It is a genuinely scarce animal in the records, with fewer than two dozen logged observations worldwide.

## Also known as

- **English:** Yellow-striped Rainbow Dorid
- **Portuguese:** Lesma-do-mar-de-faixas-douradas
- **Japanese:** セスジウミウシ
- **Russian:** Мексихромис лентовидный

## Scientific synonyms

- *Chromodoris clitonota* Bergh, 1905
- *Chromodoris luxuriosa* Bergh, 1875
- *Chromodoris scurra* Bergh, 1874
- *Chromodoris variegata* Pease, 1871
- *Doris dorsalis* A. A. Gould, 1852
- *Doris lemniscata* Quoy & Gaimard, 1832
- *Durvilledoris lemniscata* (Quoy & Gaimard, 1832)
- *Glossodoris clitonota* (Bergh, 1905)
- *Glossodoris lemniscata* (Quoy & Gaimard, 1832)

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/molluscs/nudibranch/ribboned-rainbow-dorid)*
*Updated: August 28, 2026*