Coryphella falklandica (Eliot, 1907)

Description

A relatively small flabellinid. The body is translucent, and the orange to reddish-brown digestive gland is visible inside each ceras. The rhinophores are smooth and short. The species occurs as a sub-Antarctic endemic in the southern hemisphere.

Distribution

The type locality is the Falkland Islands (Eliot 1907). Records extend across sub-Antarctic waters of the South Pacific, including the Falkland Islands, southern Chile (Canal Artillería, Isla de Chiloé), South Georgia, and the Crozet Islands.

Etymology

The specific epithet falklandica is a toponymic adjective meaning "of the Falkland Islands" and refers to the type locality.

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References

• Itaxia falklandica (Eliot, 1907), comb. n., Korshunova T., Martynov A., Bakken T., Evertsen J., Fletcher K., Mudianta I.W., Saito H., Lundin K., Schrödl M. & Picton B. (2017). Polyphyly of the traditional family Flabellinidae affects a major group of Nudibranchia: aeolidacean taxonomic reassessment with descriptions of several new families, genera, and species (Mollusca, Gastropoda). ZooKeys. 717: 1-139. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.717.21885
• Coryphella falklandica (Eliot, 1907), Ekimova I., Valdés Á., Malaquias M. A. E., Rauch C., Chichvarkhin A. & Mikhlina A. (2022). High-level taxonomic splitting in allopatric taxa causes confusion downstream: A revision of the nudibranch family Coryphellidae. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 196(1): 215-249. https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab105
• Itaxia falklandica (Eliot, 1907) comb. nov., Korshunova T., Fletcher K. & Martynov A. (2025). 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): zlaf057. https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaf057
• Coryphella falklandica, Ekimova, I., Carmona, L., Mikhlina, A. L., Grishina, D., Stanovova, M. V., Schepetov, D. M., Hoover, C., de Souza-Canal, J., Kuznetsov, K. O., & Valdés, Á. (2026). Neither "lumpers" nor "splitters": A global revision of Flabellinidae s.l. nudibranchs (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia: Nudibranchia). PLoS One. 21(5): e0347759. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0347759