Cuthona

Cuthona
Two Cuthona nana, likely mating
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Nudibranchia
Suborder: Aeolidacea
Family: Cuthonidae
Genus: Cuthona
Alder & Hancock, 1855
Synonyms
  • Precuthona Odhner, 1929

Cuthona is a genus of nudibranch in the family Cuthonidae.

Ecology

Cuthona species feed on hydroids, and have uniseriate radulae with polydentate radular teeth.

Taxonomic history

The type species of Cuthona is Cuthona nana, (Alder & Hancock, 1842). Some authorities consider the genera Catriona and Trinchesia to be synonymous with Cuthona. Most Cuthona species were transferred to other genera as a result of DNA phylogeny studies in 2016 and 2017.

Since then, Cuthona continues to be caught in the crossfire of a controversy that affects most heavily the family Trinchesiidae and any taxa that have been closely associated with it in the past, of which Cuthona is. Two teams of academics with radically different views on taxonomic method and integrity continue to publish papers near simultaneously with each other, that insist drastic taxonomic adjustments in opposite directions. The most recent publication belongs to Korshunova et al, 2025.

While The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) has cited Korshunova et al., 2025 across other taxonomic adjustments, in regards to Trinchesiidae and Cuthonidae there has yet to be adjustments.

Species

According to Korshunova et al. (2025), species in the genus Cuthona include:

Other known species of Cuthona that Korshunova et al. (2025) did not provide alternate placement for are as follows:

Species brought into synonymy:

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S. (2018). Cuthona Alder & Hancock, 1855. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=138543 on 2026-03-05
  2. ↑ Gosliner, Terrence (1981). "A New Species of Tergipedid Nudibranch from the Coast of California". Journal of Molluscan Studies. 47 (2): 200–205.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  3. ↑ Cella, K; Carmona Barnosi, L.; Ekimova, I; Chichvarkhin, A; Schepetov, D; Gosliner, T. M. (2016). A radical solution: The phylogeny of the nudibranch family Fionidae. PLoS ONE. 11(12): e0167800.
  4. ↑ Korshunova, T.; Martynov, A.; Picton, B. (2017). Ontogeny as an important part of integrative taxonomy in tergipedid aeolidaceans (Gastropoda: Nudibranchia) with a description of a new genus and species from the Barents Sea. Zootaxa. 4324(1): 1.
  5. 1 2 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, zlaf057,