Felimare
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
Felimare acriba Ev. Marcus & Er. Marcus, 1967
Felimare agassizii Bergh, 1894
Felimare alaini Ortea, Espinosa & Buske, 2013
Felimare amalguae Gosliner & Bertsch, 1988
Felimare aurantimaculata Ortigosa, Pola & Cervera, 2017
Felimare bayeri Ev. Marcus & Er. Marcus, 1967
Felimare bilineata Pruvot-Fol, 1953
Felimare californiensis Bergh, 1879
Felimare cantabrica Bouchet & Ortea, 1980
Felimare ciminoi Ortea & Valdés, 1996
Felimare espinosai Ortea & Valdés, 1996
Felimare fontandraui Pruvot-Fol, 1951
Felimare fortunensis Ortea, Espinosa & Buske, 2013
Felimare fregona Ortea & Caballer, 2013
Felimare gasconi Ortea, 1996
Felimare gofasi Ortea & Valdés, 1996
Felimare juliae DaCosta, Padula & Schrödl, 2010
Felimare lajensis Troncoso, Garcia & Urgorri, 1998
Felimare lalique Ortea & Caballer, 2013
Felimare lapislazuli Bertsch & Ferreira, 1974
Felimare lilyeveae Alejandrino & Valdés, 2006
Felimare malacitana Luque, 1986
Felimare marci Ev. Marcus, 1971
Felimare muniainae Ortea & Valdés, 1996
Felimare nyalya Ev. Marcus & Er. Marcus, 1967
Felimare olgae Ortea & Bacallado, 2007
Felimare orsinii Vérany, 1846
Felimare picta Schultz in Philippi, 1836
Felimare pinna Ortea, 1988
Felimare ruthae Ev. Marcus & Hughes, 1974
Felimare samueli Caballer & Ortea, 2012
Felimare sechurana Hoover, Padula, Schrödl, Hooker & Valdés, 2017
Felimare sycilla Bergh, 1890
Felimare tema Edmunds, 1981
Felimare tricolor Cantraine, 1835
Felimare villafranca Risso, 1818
Felimare xicoi Ortea & Valdés, 1996
Felimare zebra Heilprin, 1889
Species brought into synonymy
Felimare francoisae Bouchet, 1981 : synonym of Neptunazurea francoisae
Felimare garciagomezi Ortea & Á. Valdés, 1996 : synonym of Neptunazurea garciagomezi
Felimare ghiselini Bertsch, 1978 : synonym of Felimare californiensis Bergh, 1879
Felimare kempfi Ev. Marcus, 1971 : synonym of Neptunazurea kempfi
Felimare midatlantica Gosliner, 1990 : synonym of Felimare tricolor Cantraine, 1835
Felimare molloi Ortea & Á. Valdés, 1996 : synonym of Neptunazurea molloi
Felimare porterae T. D. A. Cockerell, 1901 : synonym of Neptunazurea porterae
Felimare sisalensis Ortigosa & Á. Valdés, 2012 : synonym of Neptunazurea sisalensis
Felimare verdensis Ortea, Valdés & García-Gómez, 1996 : synonym of Felimare tema Edmunds, 1981
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Felimare .
↑ Bouchet, P.; Caballer, M. (2020). Felimare Ev. Marcus & Er. Marcus. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species on 2026-04-22
↑ 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
↑ 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.
↑ 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 .