Discodorididae, sensu Valdes, 2002

Fernández-Vilert, Robert, Arnedo, Miquel A., Salvador, Xavi, Valdés, Ángel, Schrödl, Michael & Moles, Juan, 2025, Shining disco: shedding light into the systematics of the family Discodorididae (Gastropoda: Nudibranchia), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 203 (1), pp. 1-15 : 8

Systematics of Discodorididae

Within the Discodorididae , some genera were recovered monophyletic in our analyses, i.e. Asteronotus , Avaldesia , Geitodoris , Halgerda Bergh, 1880 , Hoplodoris , Paradoris , and Platodoris , yet some others were not. For example, the genus Atagema was recovered monophyletic with the caveat that it also includes the South American species Diaulula hispida . However , as Valdés and Muniain (2002) indicated, Dia. hispida is characterized by having a dorsal longitudinal ridge, which is unique to members of the genus Atagema . Tis, together with our molecular evidence, leads us to propose Atagema hispida comb. rest.. Additional species traditionally assigned to Diaulula appear in separate clades, suggesting this group needs reassessment. Te type species Dia. sandiegensis was included in a well-supported clade containing Dia. punctuolata . Tis clade needs further data and sequences from additional species of Diaulula , but if the name Diaulula is restricted to the clade containing the type species, other species previously assigned to Diaulula , such as Dia . greeleoi and Dia . naoarita, need a new generic placement.