Phyllidiopsis is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of sea slugs, dorid nudibranch

Nudibranch

A nudibranch is a member of what is now a taxonomic clade, and what was previously a suborder, of soft-bodied, marine gastropod mollusks which shed their shell after their larval stage. They are noted for their often extraordinary colors and striking forms...

s, shell-less marine

Marine (ocean)

Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...

 gastropod molluscs and is the largest genus within the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Phyllidiidae

Phyllidiidae

Phyllidiidae is a family of sea slugs, dorid nudibranchs, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Phyllidioidea.This family is within the clade Euctenidiacea .-Distribution:...

.

The species in this genus differ from the other genera in this family by possessing an elongate foregut

Foregut

The foregut is the anterior part of the alimentary canal, from the mouth to the duodenum at the entrance of the bile duct. At this point it is continuous with the midgut...

.

Distribution

These nudibranchs can be found in the tropical Indo-Pacific region, the eastern Pacific region, in the Red Sea

Red Sea

The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...

, in the Caribbean Sea

Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean located in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles....

 and a few in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

. About half of the described species can be found in deep waters. Among these deep-water snails, there is a group of white species, lacking all contrasting colors.
.

Species

There are presently about 30 species in the genus Phyllidiopsis including ::

• Phyllidiopsis annae Brunckhorst, 1993
• Phyllidiopsis anomala Valdés, 2001
• Phyllidiopsis bayi (Bouchet, 1983)
• Phyllidiopsis berghi Vayssière, 1902
• Phyllidiopsis blanca Gosliner & Behrens, 1988
• Phyllidiopsis boucheti Valdes & Ortea, 1996
• Phyllidiopsis brunckhorsti Valdés, 2001
• Phyllidiopsis burni Brunckhorst, 1993
• Phyllidiopsis cardinalis
  Phyllidiopsis cardinalis
  Phyllidiopsis cardinalis is a species of sea slug, a dorid nudibranch, a shell-less marine gastropod mollusk in the family Phyllidiidae....
  
  Bergh
  Rudolph Bergh
  Rudolph Bergh , full name Ludvig Sophus Rudolph Bergh, was a Danish physician and malacologist. He worked in Copenhagen....
  
  , 1875 : type genus
• Phyllidiopsis carinata Eliot, 1910
• Phyllidiopsis circularis Valdés, 2001
• Phyllidiopsis crucifera Valdés, 2001
• Phyllidiopsis dautzenbergi (Vayssière, 1911)
• Phyllidiopsis fissuratus
  Phyllidiopsis fissuratus
  Phyllidiopsis fissuratus is a species of sea slug, specifically a dorid nudibranch, a shell-less marine gastropod mollusk in the family Phyllidiidae.-Distribution:...
  
  Brunckhorst, 1993
• Phyllidiopsis futunai Valdés, 2001
• Phyllidiopsis gemmata Pruvot-Fol
  Alice Pruvot-Fol
  Alice Pruvot-Fol was a French opisthobranch malacologist.She was the author of many new species, mostly described on the basis of preserved animals....
  
  , 1957
• Phyllidiopsis holothuriana Valdés, 2001
• Phyllidiopsis krempfi Pruvot-Fol
  Alice Pruvot-Fol
  Alice Pruvot-Fol was a French opisthobranch malacologist.She was the author of many new species, mostly described on the basis of preserved animals....
  
  , 1957
• Phyllidiopsis loricata (Bergh
  Rudolph Bergh
  Rudolph Bergh , full name Ludvig Sophus Rudolph Bergh, was a Danish physician and malacologist. He worked in Copenhagen....
  
  , 1873)
• Phyllidiopsis lozoueti Valdés, 2001
• Phyllidiopsis macrotuberculata Valdés, 2001
• Phyllidiopsis monacha (Yonow, 1986)
• Phyllidiopsis neocaledonica Valdés, 2001
• Phyllidiopsis phiphiensis Brunckhorst, 1993
• Phyllidiopsis pipeki Brunckhorst, 1993
• Phyllidiopsis richeri Valdés, 2001
• Phyllidiopsis shireenae
  Phyllidiopsis shireenae
  Phyllidiopsis shireenae is a species of sea slug, a dorid nudibranch, a shell-less marine gastropod mollusk in the family Phyllidiidae....
  
  Brunckhorst, 1993
• Phyllidiopsis sinaiensis (Yonow, 1988)
• Phyllidiopsis sphingis Brunckhorst, 1993
• Phyllidiopsis striata Bergh
  Rudolph Bergh
  Rudolph Bergh , full name Ludvig Sophus Rudolph Bergh, was a Danish physician and malacologist. He worked in Copenhagen....
  
  , 1888
• Phyllidiopsis vanuatuensis Valdés, 2001

A maximum-parsimony analysis of the nucleotide sequence of the 16S mtDNA gene

Gene

A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...

, performed in 2003, has shown that the genus Phyllidiopsis is paraphyletic.