Neptunazurea kempfi is a species of sea slug, a dorid nudibranch, a shell-less marine gastropod mollusk in the family Chromodorididae.MolluscaBase eds. (2026). MolluscaBase. Neptunazurea kempfi (Ev. Marcus, 1971). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species on 2026-04-19
Taxonomy This species has previously been placed in the genera Chromodoris (Alder & Hancock, 1855) and Mexichromis (Bertsch, 1977).Rudman W.B. (1984) The Chromodorididae (Opisthobranchia: Mollusca) of the Indo-West Pacific: a review of the genera. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 81 (2/3): 115-273. page(s): 208, then transferred to Felimare (Ev. Marcus & Er. Marcus, 1967) by Johnson & Gosliner in 2012.Johnson R. F & Gosliner T. M. (2012). "Traditional taxonomic groupings mask evolutionary history: A molecular phylogeny and new classification of the chromodorid nudibranchs". PLoS One 7: e33479.
The most recent development belongs to Ribeiro et al. (2025)Ribeiro, A.; García-Méndez, K.; Valdés, Á.; Schrödl, M.; Padula, V. (2025). Description of a new genus of Chromodorididae with a taxonomic review of Neptunazurea kempfi (Ev. Marcus, 1971) comb. nov. (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Nudibranchia). Zootaxa. 5716(3): 333-348., in which molecular and morphological analysis of specimens within Felimare led to the establishment therein of genus Neptunazurea (Ribeiro, García-Méndez, Valdés, Schrödl & Padula, 2025). Neptunazurea kempfi specifically received a full taxonomic review within the study.
Distribution Distribution of Neptunazurea kempfi includes Florida, Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Brazil, Puerto Rico and Panama.Turgeon, D.; Quinn, J.F.; Bogan, A.E.; Coan, E.V.; Hochberg, F.G.; Lyons, W.G.; Mikkelsen, P.M.; Neves, R.J.; Roper, C.F.E.; Rosenberg, G.; Roth, B.; Scheltema, A.; Thompson, F.G.; Vecchione, M.; Williams, J.D. (1998). Common and scientific names of aquatic invertebrates from the United States and Canada: mollusks. 2nd ed. American Fisheries Society Special Publication, 26. American Fisheries Society: Bethesda, MD (USA). . IX, 526 + cd-rom pp.
Description The body is elongate, narrow, with the posterior portion of foot extending slightly beyond the mantle margin. Background color is bright blue with a thick yellow line around the mantle margin. There is a central white line and a series of large black and white spots extend down the dorsum. Rhinophores and gills are blue, branchial leaves are with black rachises. It is up to 20 mm long.Debelius, H. & Kuiter, R.H. (2007) Nudibranchs of the world. ConchBooks, Frankfurt, 360 pp. page(s): 208
Ecology Minimum recorded depth is 6 m. Maximum recorded depth is 37 m.Welch J. J. (2010). "The “Island Rule” and Deep-Sea Gastropods: Re-Examining the Evidence". PLoS ONE 5(1): e8776. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008776.
References This article incorporates Creative Commons (CC-BY-4.0) text from the referenceGoodheart J. A., Ellingson R. A., Vital X. G., Galvão Filho H. C., McCarthy J. B., Medrano S. M., Bhave V. J., García-Méndez K., Jiménez L. M., López G. & Hoover C. A. (2016). "Identification guide to the heterobranch sea slugs (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from Bocas del Toro, Panama". Marine Biodiversity Records 9(1): 56.