Red-Fingered Coryphella

The original description of this species is of an animal with unusually short, rounded cerata, hence the name verrucosa. The name has been extensively used for animals of different appearance, with long cerata, including Coryphella rufibranchialis, the type species of the genus Coryphella.

The type locality of Coryphella verrucosa is Bergen, Norway. Current thing it is widespread in the North Atlantic ocean, going as far North as the Barents Sea.

In North America, its range includes the Gulf of St Lawrence and the Gulf of Maine.

Animals from British Columbia and Alaska differ significantly in colour pattern and are a sibling species, described as Coryphella longicaudata O'Donoghue, 1922. Coryphella pseudoverrucosa has recently been described as a separate species, living in the Northwest Pacific near the Sea of Japan, though it overlaps in range with C. longicaudata somewhat in the Kuril Islands.

In Norway this is a common species in depths of 2–10 metres (6 ft 7 in – 32 ft 10 in). Minimum recorded depth is 0 m and maximum recorded depth is 183 m. Flabellina verrucosa sensu lato has been reported at depths down to about 300 metres (980 ft) and seems to inhabit both sandy and rocky habitats.

Coryphella verrucosa grazes on sessile invertebrates on the sea bed. It also feeds on detritus and plankton. In the United Kingdom, it lives almost exclusively on the oaten pipes hydroid (Tubularia indivisa) whilst the juveniles have a wider diet range.