This species was described from the Izu Peninsula, Japan. It is widely distributed on the Pacific Ocean coasts of Japan and the Japan Sea coasts. A species from Indonesia has previously been identified as Doto bella but is now thought to be an undescribed species.[1][2][3]
This nudibranch is transparent white with a diffuse, sub-epidermal layer of black pigment which is faint in some specimens and very dense in others. The ceratal tubercles are slightly stalked with globular tips which have a large black spot which is partly obscured by white glands in the terminal tubercle. The digestive gland is usually yellow. The outer half of the rhinophores is black.[4]
Ecology
Doto bella has been photographed on a colony of a hydroid, probably in the family Aglaopheniidae on which it presumably feeds.[5]
↑Gosliner, T.M., Valdés, A. & Behrens, D.W. (2015). Nudibranch and Sea Slug Identification - Indo-Pacific. New World Publications, Jacksonville, Florida, 408 pp., Doto sp. 12, page 330.
↑Baba, K. 1971. Anatomical studies on three species of Doto (D. bella, D. japonica and D. pita) from Japan (Nudibranchia: Dendronotoidea: Dotoidae). Publications of the Seto Marine Biological Laboratory 19(2-3):73-79, pls. 4-5.
