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Flabellina dushia

Flabellina dushia (Marcus & Marcus, 1963)

Flabellina dushia @ Pta.Sa Galera, Mallorca by Enric Madrenas

Taxonomy
 

Superdomain

Biota  

 

Kingdom

Animalia  

 

Phylum

Mollusca  

 

Class

Gastropoda  

 

Subclass

Heterobranchia  

 

Infraclass

Euthyneura  

 

Subterclass

Ringipleura  

 

Superorder

Nudipleura  

 

Order

Nudibranchia  

 

Suborder

Cladobranchia  

 

Superfamily

Aeolidioidea  

 

Family

Flabellinidae  

 

Genus

Flabellina  

 

Species

Flabellina dushia  (Ev. Marcus & Er. Marcus, 1963)

 
 Classification according to Bouchet et al. (2017)
Taxonomic source: World Register of Marine Species (AphiaID: 181254).

Taxonomic note: The classification of the Flabellinidae had remained fairly stable until in 2017 a series of works appeared (Furfaro et al., 2017; Korshunova et al., 2017) that intended to clarify the status of the Flabellinidae family. The main objective of the paper by Furfaro et al. was to molecularly characterize the Mediterranean species while the paper by Korshunova et al. wanted to delve into the phylogenetic relationships between various members of the Flabellinidae family and the other families of aeolidaceans.
Both works were based on the combination of molecular and morphological techniques and, in fact, do not offer very different results, but differ on the size and origin of the studied samples and, mainly, on the interpretation of the results. After the appearance of the paper by Furfaro et al., many Mediterranean species of the genera Calmella, Flabellina and Piseinotecus were grouped under the common genusFlabellina, but had certain problems with some species that did not fit well with the proposed classification (e.g,Flabellina babai) , discovered that the Mediterranean and Atlantic populations ofFlabellina ischitana correspond to two different cryptic species, and noted the problems of the cryptic group formed by Calmella cavolini / Flabellina confusa / Piseinotecus gaditanus, indicating the need for further studies to clarify their status.
Curiously, these studies were being carried out practically in parallel by the group of Korshunova et al. but on a much wider sample of species that included specimens from the Arctic, North Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. This second paper confirms the polyphily of the family Flabellinidae, but the interpretation of these results becomes a real revolution for the taxonomy of the aeolidaceans, especially for the family Flabellinidae.
Both papers show that there are two well differentiated clades (groups) in the Flabellinidae: species like Coryphella pedata and similars, with cerata that come directly from the back, and species like Flabellina affinis and similars, with cerata of each group coming from a stalk or pod. Although Furfaro et al. consider the species of both clades belonging to the genusFlabellina within the family Flabellinidae, Korshunova et al. distinguishes two families: Coryphellidae and Flabellinidae sensu stricto, also creating many different genera in these families to include the species they study. Its taxonomic proposal, curiously, solves the problems found by Furfaro et al.
In a way, both papers complement to each other, although in the paper by Korshunova et al. it is evident the lack of studies on tropical flabellinid species and those from southern America and Africa, so the subject has not been settled. The proposal to create new genera to collect small groups of species, instead of multispecific genera, seems to be the trend in some of the phylogenetic works of recent years. A detailed discussion of this exciting controversy can be found at (https://opistobranquis.info/en/flabellinidae/).

Synonyms

  • Coryphella dushia Marcus Ev. & Er., 1963

Description

Biology

Etymology

  • Flabellina, derived of Latin Flabellum, meaning “fan”.
  • Dushia. Most probably related to the Curaçao common word “Dushi”, that has many meanings, but it mostly means sweet, nice or good. Name used by Dr. Diva Diniz Corrêa for a new genus of nemerteans, and is well known the close relation of Dr. Corrêa with the Marcuses.

Distribution

Known georeferenced records of the species: Flabellina dushia
Sources:
: OBIS
: GROC 2010-2011
: Enric Madrenas
: João Pedro Silva
: Bernard Picton
: GBIF.ORG		 : OPK
: VIMAR
: Manuel Ballesteros.
: M@re Nostrum
: Altres fonts
: Marine Regions

Abundance

    Western Mediterranean: ☆☆☆☆☆
    Eastern Mediterranean: ☆☆☆☆☆
    Atlantic Ocean: ☆☆☆☆☆
Month

This chart displays the monthly observation probability for Flabellina dushia based on our own records.

More pictures

Flabellina dushia @ Lake Worth lagoon, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA 8-07-2007
Flabellina dushia @ Lake Worth lagoon, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA 24-06-2007 by Anne DuPont
Flabellina dushia @ Gran Canaria by Mario Matute
Flabellina dushia @ Gran Canaria by Mario Matute
Flabellina dushia @ Pta.Sa Galera, Mallorca by Tià Pons
Flabellina dushia @ Pta.Sa Galera, Mallorca by Tià Pons

Bibliography

    Ballesteros, M., E. Madrenas, and M. Pontes. 2023. OPK - Opistobranquis. (https://opistobranquis.info/).
    Caballer, M., J. Ortea, N. Rivero, G. Carias-Tucker, M. A. E. Malaquías, and S. Narciso. 2015. The opisthobranch gastropods (Mollusca: Heterobranchia) from Venezuela: an annotated and illustrated inventory of species. Zootaxa 4034 (2): 201–256.
    Cervera, J. L., G. Calado, C. Gavaia, M. A. E. Malaquías, J. Templado, M. Ballesteros, J. C. García-Gómez, and C. Megina. 2004. An annotated and updated checklist of the opisthobranchs (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from Spain and Portugal (including islands and archipelagos). Boletín Instituto Español de Oceanografía, 20 (1-4): 1-111. L.
    Debelius, H., and R. H. Kuiter. 2007. Nudibranchs of the world. IKAN- Unterwasserarchiv, Frankfurt.
    Frank, B. et al. 1998. Flabellina dushia accessed through: JaxShells.org on 2014-12-14. (http://www.jaxshells.org/adushia.htm).
    Garcia, F. J., and H. Bertsch. 2009. Diversity and distribution of the Gastropoda Opisthobranchia from the Atlantic Ocean: A global biogeographic approach. Scientia Marina. 73: 153–160.
    Korshunova, T. A., A. V. Martynov, T. Bakken, J. Evertsen, K. Fletcher, I. W. Mundiata, H. Saito, K. Lundin, M. Schrödl, and B. Picton. 2017. Polyphyly of the traditional family Flabellinidae affects a major group of Nudibranchia: aeolidacean taxonomic reassessment with descriptions of several new families, genera, and species (Mollusca, Gastropoda). ZooKeys 717: 1-139.
    Korshunova, T. A., A. V. Martynov, T. Bakken, J. Evertsen, K. Fletcher, I. W. Mundiata, H. Saito, K. Lundin, M. Schrödl, and B. Picton. 2017. Corrigenda: Polyphyly of the traditional family Flabellinidae affects a major group of Nudibranchia: aeolidacean taxonomic reassessment with descriptions of several new families, genera, and species (Mollusca, Gastropoda). https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.717.21885. ZooKeys 725: 139–141.
    Long, S. J. 2006. Bibliography of Opisthobranchia 1554-2000. Bayside Books & Press, Tustin, CA, U.S.A. 672p.
    Marcus, E. d. B. R., and E. G. Marcus. 1963. Opisthobranchs from the Lesser Antilles. Studies on the Fauna of Curacao and other Caribbean Islands 19(79):1-76.
    McDonald, G. 2009. Bibliographia Nudibranchia. 2nd Online Edition, Annotated. 1072 pp  Institute of Marine Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz. (http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8115h0wz).
    Millen, S. V., and J. C. Hamann. 2006. A new nudibranch species, genus Flabellina (Opisthobranchia: Aeolidacea) from the Caribbean with redescriptions of F. verta (Marcus 1970), and F. dushia (Marcus and Marcus, 1963). Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, (4) 57(30): 925-936.
    Ortea, J., M. Caballer, and L. Moro. 2004. Dos aeolidaceos con ceratas rojos de la region macaronesica y el mar Caribe (Mollusca: Nudibranchia). Vieraea 32: 83-96.
    Rudman W.B. et al. 1998. Flabellina dushia accessed through: Sea Slug Forum on 2014-12-14. (http://seaslugforum.net/showall/flabdush).
    Valdés, A., J. Hamann, D. W. Behrens, and A. DuPont. 2006. Caribbean sea slugs: a field guide to the opisthobranch mollusks from the tropical northwestern Atlantic. Washington: Sea Challengers Natural History Books. 289 pp.
    WoRMS Editorial Board. 2023. World Register of Marine Species. WoRMS. (http://www.marinespecies.org).

    Bibliography based on the works by Steve Long, 2006. Bibliography of Opisthobranchia 1554-2000 and Gary McDonald, 2009. Bibliographia Nudibranchia, with later updates from other resources.

Further reading

Cite this article as:

Ballesteros, M., Madrenas, E. & Pontes, M. (2023) "Flabellina dushia" in OPK-Opistobranquis. Published: 22/02/2015. Accessed: 05/12/2023. Available at (https://opistobranquis.info/en/?p=18503)

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