Tochuina nigritigris is a species of dendronotid nudibranch, in the family Tritoniidae,[2] that is 82 mm long.
| Tochuina nigritigris | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| Subclass: | Heterobranchia |
| Order: | Nudibranchia |
| Suborder: | Cladobranchia |
| Family: | Tritoniidae |
| Genus: | Tochuina |
| Species: | T. nigritigris
|
| Binomial name | |
| Tochuina nigritigris (Valdés, Lundsten & N. G. Wilson, 2018)[1]
| |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Description edit
Scientists named the species nigritigris, a combination of the words "black" and "tiger" in Latin, because of its dark and light stripes.[3] The body of the nudibranch is elongated and narrow, surrounded by numerous, densely packed glandular projections that makes them look ruffled. Tochuina nigritigris has short and white rhinophores with 9 simple lamellae, located on the anterior end of the notum. The genital and anal openings are on the right side of the body.[1][4]
Distribution edit
Tochuina nigritigris was discovered by the MBARI on Guide Seamount, an underwater mountain off the coast of Central California, where it was found crawling on volcanic rocks 1,730 meters below the surface, near some dead clumps of coral. Other animals observed near it included Keratoisis, comatulid crinoids, hyocrinid crinoids, primnoid octocorals, sea stars, bivalves, Farrea, and many members of Macrouridae.[5] The phylogenetic position was initially based on available sequence data and phylogenetic analysis which indicated that it was the sister to the Antarctic species Tritonella belli.[6] A fuller analysis of the phylogeny of the Tritoniidae in 2020 moved this species to Tochuina.[7]
References edit
- ^ a b Valdés, Ángel; Lundsten, Lonny; Wilson, Nerida G. (2018-12-03). "Five new deep-sea species of nudibranchs (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia: Cladobranchia) from the Northeast Pacific". Zootaxa. 4526 (4): 401. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4526.4.1. ISSN 1175-5334.
- ^ MolluscaBase eds. (2020). MolluscaBase. Tochuina nigritigris (Valdés, Lundsten & Wilson, 2018). Accessed on 2021-01-06.
- ^ Fulton-Bennett, Kim (2018-12-12). "Five new species of sea slugs found in the ocean depths". MBARI. Retrieved 2019-04-27.
- ^ Behrens, D., 2019. Tritonia nigriotigris The slug site, Miller, M. ed., accessed 2021-01-06.
- ^ "Tritonia nigritigris Valdés, Lundsten & Wilson, 2018, sp. nov. - Plazi TreatmentBank". tb.plazi.org. Retrieved 2019-04-27.
- ^ Wägele, H. (1989b) On the anatomy and zoogeography of Tritoniella belli Eliot, 1907 (Opisthobranchia, Nudibranchia) and the synony my of T. sinuata Eliot, 1907. Polar Biology, 9, 235–243 doi:10.1007/BF00263771
- ^ Korshunova, T.; Martynov, A. (2020). Consolidated data on the phylogeny and evolution of the family Tritoniidae (Gastropoda: Nudibranchia) contribute to genera reassessment and clarify the taxonomic status of the neuroscience models Tritonia and Tochuina. PLOS ONE. 15(11): e0242103.