About Hypselodoris paradisa Gosliner & R.F.Johnson, 2018
Hypselodoris paradisa is a species of nudibranch first described by Gosliner & R.F.Johnson in 2018. This species has a translucent pink body marked with opaque white spots and diffuse purple patches on the head, tail, and back of the mantle. The mantle also features a series of longitudinal dashed white lines. Dark wine-red spots are evenly scattered across the mantle, and these spots are larger and more numerous along the mantle edge. Its gills are off-white, with red tips and red colouring on their outer faces. The rhinophores have off-white clubs marked with three orange rings, and a transparent shaft. While its overall colour pattern and body shape resemble those of Hypselodoris decorata and Hypselodoris maculosa, DNA results show that H. paradisa does not belong to the same clade as these two species. Instead, DNA evidence indicates that its closest relatives are Hypselodoris skyleri and Hypselodoris katherinae. This is a small species; the holotype specimen measured only 10 millimeters in length. This nudibranch was described from a specimen collected at Pig Island, Madang Lagoon, Madang, Papua New Guinea, at coordinates 5.1634°S 145.83833°E. It is currently known only from Papua New Guinea.
