Alder & Hancock, 1862
Description:
This species may reach 14 mm in length (usually 12 mm or less), pale fawn with variable blotchy brown or black pigment and crimson speckles. The cerata (up to ten pairs) bear 4-6 concentric circlets of blunt tubercles, each containing a terminal cluster of chalk-white granules. The apical tubercle of each ceras is similar. The dilated frontal margin of the head forms a pair of prominent lateral flaps. Each rhinophore sheath is flared, sometimes crenulated. This species differs from the other species in the North Sea in having white-tipped cerata and fine crimson speckling. Furthermore, the dorsal surface of the body exhibits characteristic small white epidermal tubercles.
Distribution:
In British waters this species has been reliably recorded from south west England, Ireland and western Scotland (Distr. D. cuspidata). Elsewhere it has been recorded front Norway, to 300 m and from Asturias (north east Spain).