Calma (gastropod)

Calma
Calma glaucoides
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Nudibranchia
Suborder: Aeolidacea
Superfamily: Fionoidea
Family: Calmidae
Iredale & O'Donoghue, 1923
Genus: Calma
Alder & Hancock, 1855
Type species
Calma glaucoides
(Alder & Hancock, 1854)
Synonyms

Forestia Trinchese, 1881

Calma is a genus of nudibranchs, shell-less marine gastropod molluscs or sea slugs, and the only member of the family Calmidae.[1] It is characterized by the lacks of an anus and radular teeth mostly fused into a band-like radular ribbon, a trait unique within a majority of the order Nudibranchia. These adaptations are largely a result of their diet of teleost eggs.[2][3]

Species

The genus contains two species:[1]

  • Species Calma glaucoides (Alder and Hancock, 1854)
  • Species Calma gobioophaga Calado and Urgorri, 2002

Taxonomic history

In 2016, a molecular phylogenetics study by Cella and colleagues placed various fionoid taxa in the family Fionidae, among them Calma.[2] In 2017, Korshunova and colleagues found this "super-lumping" of taxa inside the family Fionidae, as “Fionidae” sensu latissimo, to contain fundamental errors in its list of synapomorphies and to not provide a reliable morphological delineation or definition of the taxa it contained. The latter authors argue that various taxa lumped into this family presented considerable morphological and molecular pattern differences from each other, such as the unique radula of Calma, and that such differences should grant the usage of more narrowly-defined families, reinstating, among other families, the family Calmidae.[4][3]

References

  1. ^ a b Gofas, S. (2015). Calma Alder & Hancock, 1855. In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species on 2015-10-14
  2. ^ a b Cella, K; Carmona Barnosi, L.; Ekimova, I; Chichvarkhin, A; Schepetov, D; Gosliner, T. M. (2016). A radical solution: The phylogeny of the nudibranch family Fionidae. PLoS ONE. 11(12): e0167800.
  3. ^ a b Korshunova, Tatiana; Fletcher, Karin; Martynov, Alexander (2025-08-01). "The endless forms are the most differentiated—how taxonomic pseudo-optimization masked natural diversity and evolution: the nudibranch case". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 204 (4). doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaf057. ISSN 0024-4082.
  4. ^ Korshunova, Tatiana; Martynov, Alexander; Picton, Bernard (2017-09-26). "Ontogeny as an important part of integrative taxonomy in tergipedid aeolidaceans (Gastropoda: Nudibranchia) with a description of a new genus and species from the Barents Sea". Zootaxa. 4324 (1): 1–22. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4324.1.1. ISSN 1175-5334.

See also

  • Gofas, S.; Le Renard, J.; Bouchet, P. (2001). Mollusca. in: Costello, M.J. et al. (Ed.) (2001). European register of marine species: a check-list of the marine species in Europe and a bibliography of guides to their identification. Collection Patrimoines Naturels. 50: pp. 180–213.
  • Bouchet, P.; Rocroi, J.-P. (2005). "Classification and Nomenclator of Gastropod Families". Malacologia. 47 (1–2).
  • Animal Diversity - University of Michigan
  • Vaught, K.C. (1989). A classification of the living Mollusca. American Malacologists: Melbourne, FL (USA). ISBN 0-915826-22-4. XII, 195 pp.
  • Marine species database
  • Proc. malac. Soc. London 15: 200