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Tenellia

Tenellia is a genus of sea slugs, aeolid nudibranchs, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Trinchesiidae.

Taxonomic history

This was a small genus until a DNA phylogeny of the former family Tergipedidae resulted in most species of Cuthona being transferred to this genus. Miller (2004) restricted the genus Cuthona (Alder & Hancock, 1855) to the type species, C. nana (Alder & Hancock, 1842), and transferred to the genus Trinchesia the rest of the species previously included in Cuthona. Miller has been followed by some authors, and has not been followed by others - and there is currently much instability on the extension and contents of these two genera. Cella et al., 2016 hypothesised that the genus Tenellia should include many former Cuthona and Trinchesia species, with others being placed in new genera. Since then, there has been much shuffling of species between genera, many species being returned from Trinchesia to Tenellia, and others being placed in several smaller genera, Catriona, Diaphoreolis, Phestilla, and Zelentia.

In the most recent study, Korshunova et al., 2025 re-examined genetic, physical, evolutionary, and environmental characteristics of species within the suborder Aeolidacea, and proposed a massive recategorization of taxons. It was stated that the previous "lumping" of taxa together obscures the diversity and evolutionary origins of species. The extensive study proposed reversing several previous mass species reassignments between genera, reinstating taxa that had fallen to synonymy in previous papers, restricting genera, and suggesting guidelines for how to categorize species that likely belong to yet-undiscovered genera.

While The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) has cited Korshunova et al., 2025 across other taxonomic adjustments, in regards to Trinchesiidae, who is possibly the most controversed Aeolidean family with papers being published nearly every year from opposing camps, there has yet to be adjustments.

Species

According to Korshunova et al. (2025), species within the genus Tenellia include:

  • Tenellia adspersa <small>(Nordmann, 1845) - type species</small>
  • Tenellia gotlandica <small>(Lundin, Malmberg, Martynov & Korshunova, 2022)</small>
  • Tenellia pallida <small>(Alder & Hancock, 1845)</small> synonym of Tenellia adspersa <small>(von Nordmann, 1845)</small>
  • Tenellia fuscata <small>(Gould, 1870)</small> - noted as a "possible synonym of Tenellia pallida"

Species now moved to other genera include:

Controversed species currently represented by an alternate genus include:

  • Tenellia arnoldi <small>(Mehrotra & Caballer, 2024)</small> represented as Phestilla arnoldi <small>(Mehrotra & Caballer, 2024)</small>
  • Tenellia chaetopterana <small>(Ekimova, Deart & Schepetov, 2017)</small> represented as Phestilla chaetopterana
  • Tenellia fuscostriata <small>(J. T. Hu, Y. J. Zhang, J. Y. Xie & J.-W. Qiu, 2020)</small> represented as Phestilla fuscostriata
  • Tenellia goniophaga <small>(J.-T. Hu, Y.-J. Zhang, S. K. F. Yiu, J. Y. Xie & J.-W. Qui, 2020)</small> represented as Phestilla goniophaga
  • Tenellia lugubris <small>(Bergh, 1870)</small> represented as Phestilla lugubris
  • Tenellia melanobrachia <small>(Bergh, 1874)</small> represented as Phestilla melanobrachia
  • Tenellia minor <small>(Rudman, 1981)</small> represented as Phestilla minor
  • Tenellia panamica <small>(Rudman, 1982)</small> represented as Phestilla panamica
  • Tenellia poritophages <small>(Rudman, 1979)</small> represented as Phestilla poritophages
  • Tenellia sibogae <small>(Bergh, 1905)</small> represented as Phestilla sibogae
  • Tenellia subodiosa <small>(A. Wang, Conti-Jerpe, J. L. Richards & D. M. Baker, 2020)</small> represented as Phestilla subodiosa
  • Tenellia viei <small>(Mehrotra, Caballer & Chavanich, 2020)</small> represented as Phestilla viei

References