This beautiful Three-lined Aeolid is apparently fairly abundant along the west coast — from Baja California, Mexico to Alaska, but it doesn’t seem to be a nudibranch that many snorkelers and shallow free divers see in the Salish Sea.  The Red-fingered Coryphella is much more common and perhaps the similarities between the two mean some C. trilineata are overlooked.  So look closely for more intensely clustered cerata, and three lines running down the back — one  down the centre and two along the sides. The centre line breaks at the rhinophores and continues onto the two oral tentacles.   Most importantly, look closely at the rhinophores, which are perfoliate — meaning they have almost a spiral-like form.   Colours vary from orange to red, to pink to almost a deep orange-purple – the colour at the  tip of the cerata and rhinophores also tends to vary.  It may be that there are several different “look-alike” species found along the coast and researchers are examining this now. The individual documented here was found in less than 2 metres of water in the rocks of a breakwater off of Victoria, British Columbia.  Maximum size: 35 mm.