Felimare

Felimare
Felimare picta on SS Rosslyn, Gibraltar
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Nudibranchia
Infraorder: Doridoidei
Superfamily: Chromodoridoidea
Family: Chromodorididae
Genus: Felimare
Ev. Marcus & Er. Marcus, 1967
Type species
Felimare bayeri
Ev. Marcus & Er. Marcus, 1967

Felimare is a genus of sea slugs, dorid nudibranchs, shell-less marine gastropod molluscs in the subfamily Miamirinae of the family Chromodorididae.

Taxonomic history

Felimare was described by Eveline & Ernst Marcus in 1967 but treated as a synonym of Hypselodoris until 2012 when it was brought back into use for an eastern Pacific, Atlantic and Mediterranean clade revealed by molecular (DNA) techniques.

Since then it has been somewhat controversial genus, as the 2012 molecular analysis did not take any morphological characteristics into clarification, either external or internal, resulting in little to no diagnostic material to define the genus. In 2025, several of the smaller Felimare species were investigated using both molecular phylogenetic analysis and morphological analysis, and subsequently moved into a new genus, Neptunazurea.

Species

Species brought into synonymy

References

  1. ↑ Bouchet, P.; Caballer, M. (2020). Felimare Ev. Marcus & Er. Marcus. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species on 2026-04-22
  2. ↑ Johnson R.F. & Gosliner T.M. (2012) Traditional taxonomic groupings mask evolutionary history: A molecular phylogeny and new classification of the chromodorid nudibranchs. PLoS ONE 7(4): e33479
  3. ↑ Ribeiro, A.; García-Méndez, K.; Valdés, Á.; Schrödl, M.; Padula, V. (2025). Description of a new genus of Chromodorididae with a taxonomic review of Neptunazurea kempfi (Ev. Marcus, 1971) comb. nov. (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Nudibranchia). Zootaxa. 5716(3): 333-348.
  4. ↑ Ortigosa D., Pola M., Cervera J. L. (2017). "A new Felimare (Mollusca: Heterobranchia: Nudibranchia) of the Atlantic blue chromodorid chromatic group from Cape Verde". Scientia Marina 81(3): 387-394. doi:10.3989/scimar.04594.16A.