Pleurobranchus varians is a species of sea slug, a sidegill slug, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Pleurobranchidae.
Taxonomy The sister species (the closest relative) is Pleurobranchus areolatus from Caribbean.Goodheart J., Camacho-García Y., Padula V., Schrödl M., Cervera J. L., Gosliner T. M. & Valdés Á. (2015). "Systematics and biogeography of Pleurobranchus Cuvier, 1804, sea slugs (Heterobranchia: Nudipleura: Pleurobranchidae)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 174(2): 322-362. . Those two species split 3.10 million years ago (Isthmus of Panama formed 3.1–3.4 Mya). Both species have color morphs and for their proper determination is useful the knowledge of locality.
Distribution The distribution of P. varians include the Hawaiian Islands and Vanuatu. The type locality is Hawaiian Islands.
Description P. varians was originally discovered and described by William Harper Pease in 1860. Pease' original text (the type description) reads as follow:
Ecology All species in the genus Pleurobranchus are carnivorous.
References This article incorporates public domain text from the reference