#aeolids

Name: Phidiana hiltoni

My personal name: Hairy slug

Location: Central coast of California to Baja California, Mexico, Gulf of Mexico

Size: Up to 5 cm long

Diet: Feeds on hydroids

18 new species of Aeolidiidae nudibranch identified

Aeolidiidae is one of the largest families of nudibranchs, whose members differ from the rest of aeolids by their pectinate radular teeth and their diet –most of them feed on anemones. Indeed, many species sequester zooxanthellae from their prey and maintain the dinoflagellates alive in their tissues in order to use the photosynthetic products for their own nutrition.

The systematic relationships between genera and/or species of Aeolidiidae itself have been subject of controversy for the last seventy years.

This family has been the centre of a study by the researcher from the University of Cádiz, Leila Carmona; a project which has been principally based on reviewing, from a molecular and morphological point of view, all of the known species that make it up. 

Based on molecular and phylogenetic analyses of specimens belonging to 52 species, Dr. Carmona found that 18 of them were new, that is to say, "they were not previously known to science." Therefore, "at this moment I am drawing up descriptions of these newly discovered species", Carmona said.

Among the new species discovered by Leila Carmona, one striking case is that of the Spurilla onubensis. "From the work carried out using modern Molecular Biology and Scanning Electron Microscope techniques, we realized that a series of examples of this found in Huelva corresponded to a species new to scientists, in spite of having been identified as Spurilla neapolitana for years."

[Source]

[Further reading]