---
title: Comb Jelly Eater (Philinopsis ctenophoraphaga)
scientific_name: Philinopsis ctenophoraphaga
common_name: Comb Jelly Eater
taxon: Opisthobranchia
published: 2026-08-11T13:46:59.037Z
updated: 2026-08-11T14:25:11.338Z
tags: Comb Jelly Eater, Philinopsis ctenophoraphaga, Opisthobranchia, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/molluscs/opisthobranchia/comb-jelly-eater
---

# Comb Jelly Eater (*Philinopsis ctenophoraphaga*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Opisthobranchia (*Opisthobranchia*)
- **Size:** up to 4 cm
- **Depth:** 2-25 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Cathemeral
- **Rarity:** Rare
- **Habitat:** Sand and rubble near soft corals, on and around crawling comb jellies
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer, Simultaneous hermaphrodite

## How to recognise it

- pale translucent body mottled brown and cream, often barely visible
- usually found sitting on or beside a flat crawling comb jelly
- blunt swollen shape typical of the genus, no external shell
- length up to 4 cm

A pale mottled slug up to 4 cm (1.6 in), so unremarkable in itself that the reliable way to find one is to find its food first. It sits on or beside a crawling comb jelly, and the two are usually spotted together or not at all.

The name means comb jelly eater, and it is literal. This slug feeds on benthic ctenophores of the genus Coeloplana - the flat, transparent animals that spread themselves over soft corals and sea whips - biting pieces out of a living animal that is itself mostly water and almost impossible to see. It is one of the very few predators known to specialize on them.

Gosliner named the species in 2011 after the feeding behavior, which is unusual: most slugs are named for their color. It is also a good illustration of how thin our knowledge of this sea still is, since both the predator and its prey are common enough to photograph and were nevertheless nameless until the last twenty years.

## Also known as

- **Japanese:** クリイロキセワタ
- **Russian:** Филинопсис гребневикоед

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/molluscs/opisthobranchia/comb-jelly-eater)*
*Updated: August 11, 2026*