Phyllidiopsis

Phyllidiopsis is a genus of sea slugs, dorid nudibranchs, shell-less marine gastropod molluscs and is the largest genus within the family Phyllidiidae.

Description
The species in this genus differ from the other genera in this family by possessing an elongate foregut and fused oral tentacles.

Distribution
These nudibranchs can be found in the tropical Indo-Pacific region, the eastern Pacific region, in the Red Sea, in the Caribbean Sea and a few in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. About half of the described species can be found in deep waters. Among these deep-water sea slugs, 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 Bergh, 1876 : type species of the genus Phyllidiopsis
 * Phyllidiopsis circularis Valdés, 2001
 * Phyllidiopsis crucifera Valdés, 2001
 * Phyllidiopsis dautzenbergi (Vayssière, 1912)
 * Phyllidiopsis fissurata Brunckhorst, 1993
 * Phyllidiopsis futunai Valdés, 2001
 * Phyllidiopsis gemmata Pruvot-Fol, 1957
 * Phyllidiopsis holothuriana Valdés, 2001
 * Phyllidiopsis krempfi Pruvot-Fol, 1957
 * Phyllidiopsis loricata (Bergh, 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 quadrilineata (Bergh, 1905)
 * Phyllidiopsis richeri Valdés, 2001
 * Phyllidiopsis shireenae Brunckhorst, 1990
 * Phyllidiopsis sinaiensis (Yonow, 1988)
 * Phyllidiopsis sphingis Brunckhorst, 1993
 * Phyllidiopsis vanuatuensis Valdés, 2001
 * Phyllidiopsis xishaensis (Lin, 1983)
 * Species brought into synonymy:
 * Phyllidiopsis carinata Eliot, 1910 : synonym of Phyllidia ocellata Cuvier, 1804
 * Phyllidiopsis fissuratus Brunckhorst, 1993 : synonym of Phyllidiopsis fissurata Brunckhorst, 1993 (incorrect gender agreement of specific epithet)
 * Phyllidiopsis gynenopla Bouchet, 1977 : synonym of Phyllidiopsis berghi Vayssière, 1902
 * Phyllidiopsis molaensis Meyer, 1977 accepted as Phyllidiella molaensis (Meyer, 1977) (original combination)
 * Phyllidiopsis papilligera Bergh, 1890 : synonym of Ceratophyllidia papilligera (Bergh, 1890)
 * Phyllidiopsis striata Bergh, 1888 : synonym of Phyllidiella striata (Bergh, 1890)

A maximum-parsimony analysis of the nucleotide sequence of the 16S mtDNA gene, performed in 2003, has shown that the genus Phyllidiopsis is paraphyletic.