Biology:Coryphella

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Coryphella is a genus of sea slugs, specifically aeolid nudibranchs, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Coryphellidae.[1]

Taxonomy

Coryphella was originally described in an 1850 paper, and included three original species; Coryphella landsburgii, Coryphella rufobranchialis, and Coryphella pellucida.[2] The family Coryphellidae was first established in 1889 by Rudolph Bergh,[3] and was re-established in a 2017 study.[4] Molecular studies have found that many existing genera were actually synonymous with Coryphella, leading to many genera being merged.[5] However, these studies had failed to take morphological analysis into account, the "lumping" of several genera under Coryphella leading to loss of differentiation. Thus in a 2025 study[6], after full molecular and morphological analysis, the genus Coryphella was restricted, previously synonymized genera reinstated, and two new genera established.

Species

According to Korshunova et al. (2025), species within the genus Coryphella are as follows[6]:

  • Coryphella longicaudata O'Donoghue, 1922
  • Coryphella pseudoverrucosa Martynov, Sanamyan & Korshunova, 2015
  • Coryphella verrucosa M. Sars, 1829

Genus incertae sedis currently under Coryphella include[6][1]:


Species currently brought into synonymy[6][1]:

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Bouchet, P. (2019) Coryphella J. E. Gray, 1850. MolluscaBase eds. (2026). MolluscaBase. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species on 2026-05-05
  2. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named og-description
  3. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named family-description
  4. Korshunova, T.; Martynov, A.; Bakken, T.; Evertsen, J.; Fletcher, K.; Mudianta, W.; Saito, H.; Lundin, K.; Schrödl, M.; Picton, B. (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.
  5. Ekimova, Irina; Valdés, Ángel; Malaquias, Manuel António E; Rauch, Cessa; Chichvarkhin, Anton; Mikhlina, Anna; Antokhina, Tatiana; Chichvarkhina, Olga et al. (16 March 2022). "High-level taxonomic splitting in allopatric taxa causes confusion downstream: a revision of the nudibranch family Сoryphellidae". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 196 (1): 215–249. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab109. https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article/196/1/215/6549318. 
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Korshunova T.; Fletcher K.; Martynov A. (2025). The endless forms are the most differentiated—how taxonomic pseudo-optimization masked natural diversity and evolution: the nudibranch case Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. Volume 204, Issue 4, August 2025.

Wikidata ☰ Q3694973 entry