Reasoning recorded at review

• •Dark brown-black animal densely covered by small closely spaced white specks
• •The visible body remains high and firm-looking with a reduced mantle rather than a soft broad dendrodorid skirt
• •Dark appendage tissue carries dense pale speckling consistent with the stronger cluster frames
• •The partially obscured view does not reveal a red mantle border or the large dark white-tipped gills expected in black-form Dendrodoris fumata

Alternatives considered

• Dendrodoris nigra

  Why plausible: An adult can be black or dark grey with white mantle spots, making it a superficial colour-pattern alternative.

  Comparison: It should retain a soft broad dendrodorid mantle and an erect inward-cupped gill plume directed posteriorly, not the high firm body, reduced stiff mantle and pale line-edged gills shown here. A specimen-level vestibular-gland check would provide definitive anatomical separation.

• Dendrodoris fumata

  Why plausible: Its black and grey forms are commonly confused with other dark dorids.

  Comparison: The black form never has white dorsal specks, always has a thin red mantle border and has very large dark gills with white apices; the grey form also lacks white specks and has a flattened outward-spreading plume. Those combinations are contradicted in these photographs.

• Doriprismatica marinae

  Why plausible: This congener is warm brown with opaque white spots and cream gills crossed by paired brown edge-lines, so it is the most important spotted Doriprismatica lookalike to check explicitly.

  Comparison: D. marinae has a broad warm-brown mantle with permanent and semi-permanent undulations, one conspicuous brown marginal band, white spots denser toward the edge, and different rhinophore coloration. The Tawali animals instead show the very reduced mantle and uniformly star-speckled, high firm body of D. stellata. Radula or DNA would be decisive if external variation is suspected.

• Other Doriprismatica

  Why plausible: Several congeners share an elongate body and some have white spotting or dark-lined appendages.

  Comparison: The compared congeners have conspicuous mantle folds and marginal bands, tubercles, or appendage patterns that conflict with the original D. stellata combination. A full genus-level specimen comparison, radula and COI would provide confirmation.