Everyone has their moments of vanity—it’s part of the human condition, I guess. So, allow me to momentarily indulge and introduce to you Nanuca leali new species. In an article published last Tuesday, September 2, Henryco and collaborators* introduced the new species, a small nudibranch from southeastern Florida.
The species differs from its closest relatives in the genus Nanuca by the large rhinophores (the large club-shaped, paired structures on the head that serve for chemical detection in seawater) and other features, including genetic differences in the sequence of nucleotides of the COI gene.
The article includes the description of several new species of nudibranchs of the family Myrrhinidae distributed over a large swath of the western Atlantic, from southeastern Florida to Cabo Frio in southeastern Brazil.
In addition to making me happy for their nomenclatural tribute, the article by Henryco and collaborators emphasizes the importance of detailed work combining genetics and morphological data in the unraveling of hidden biodiversity in nudibranch mollusks.
[I also want to thank co-author of the article, colleague, and friend Vinicius Padula of the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for letting me know about the paper and sending the photos, and Linda Ianniello for use of her underwater photographs.]
*Henryco, B, CAO Meirelles, K García-Mendez, Y Camacho-García, Á Valdés, M Schrödl, V Padula. 2025. The lady of the rings: Integrative systematics of Nanuca Er. Marcus, 1957 (Mollusca: Nudibranchia: Myrrhinidae) reveals a hidden diversity. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 205 (1), zlaf085, https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaf085
