Facelina coronata or F. auriculata?

July 22, 2001
From: Bernard Picton

Hi Bill,
Concerning your email about Daniel's pictures, I think they are definitely F. coronata. The bottom one shows the blue sheen which is often a prominent feature, it can be seen on the oral tentacles in the upper photo. The pigmentation on the rhinophores is exactly right and the upper photo shows the lamellae. The pigmentation of the tips of the cerata is also exactly right. They are only half grown so have fewer cerata than full grown individuals.

I'm not sure why you are using the name coronata - I've gone to auriculata as it has priority and I've looked at Müller's painting which shows the separated ceratal clusters of coronata not the overlapping ones of bostoniensis. Thompson was of the opinion that auriculata couldn't be used as it wasn't clear which of these two species Müller had. I've scanned the painting from Müller's 1806 Zoologia Danica and a couple of my pictures of this species. The name Doris auriculata was first given to a description in Müller (1776) So I guess this painting isn't really a part of the original description, unless it originally appeared in the 1776 work.

UPPER RIGHT: June 1989 - Skomer Is. Pembrokeshire, South Wales.
LOWER LEFT: August 1992 - Isle of Man
LOWER RIGHT: Rathke, J. in Müller, 1806. Doris auriculata Plate 138 fig.1.

References:
• Müller, Otto Frederik 1776. Zoologiae Danicae. Prodromus seu animalium Daniae et Norvegiae ingenarum characteres, nomina, et synonyma imprimis popularium, xxxii, 1-282.
• Rathke, J. 1806 In: O. F. Müller. Zoologie Danica, sev Animalium Daniae et Norvegiae rariorum ac minus notorum descriptiones et historia. ed. 3, 4: 1-46, pls. 121-160 [Nudibranchia pp. 21-23, 29, 32-33, pls. 138, 145, 149].

Bernard

bernard.picton.um@nics.gov.uk

Picton, B., 2001 (Jul 22) Facelina coronata or F. auriculata?. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/4854

Dear Bernard,
Thanks from confirming the identity of Daniel's photos. Concerning my use of F. coronata instead of F. auriculata. This was based on Tom Thompson's views and I could find no clear use of a single name in the European literature, both names being used by different authors. Thompson's argument (Thompson & Brown,1984) basically was that Muller's Doris auriculata could refer to either F. bostoniensis or F. coronata and so was unidentifiable. Your scan of Muller's painting clearly shows the separated ceratal clusters which distinguish F. auriculata (and F. coronata) from F. bostoniensis, so I agree that there appears to be no good reason not to use Facelina auriculata.

If anyone has a reason why this would be a bad nomenclatural move, could they let me know in the next week or so. If there are none, I will make the necessary changes on the Forum.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2001 (Jul 22). Comment on Facelina coronata or F. auriculata? by Bernard Picton . [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/4854

Factsheet

Facelina auriculata

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