Variation or species in aeolid nudibranchs

“变异”发现在一些风状裸枝的群体进行了形态学检查，并在必要时也分子。四棱面藻的两个颜色变种被发现是两个独立的物种。它们拥有非常不同的阴茎。这种差异在保存下来的标本中不容易被发现，这应该就是为什么它们被认为是单一物种的变种。本研究也证明了Facelinella属是无效的。两个相似的樱属种，被赋予了相同的学名，用合适的不同名称恰当地描述。两种风沙的活体标本可以通过一些外部特征（包括颜色图案）很容易识别，但保存后这些特征变得模糊，不再有助于区分两者。在保存条件下，根状形态是区分它们的唯一特征。并对日本新记录的非典型衣原体的颜色变异进行了研究。除了颜色和大小外，这种风体在外部形态上没有发现差异，在内部形态上也没有发现差异，这强烈表明它是单一物种的变异。COI区线粒体DNA的比较也证实了这一点。在这项资助的帮助下完成了这些研究，揭示了活状态下的外部形态为物种鉴定提供了比我们过去期望的更多的信息。这将鼓励通过照片和出版数据库来识别物种。一种广泛分布的虫黄藻，斑蝶黄藻，已知在不同的地方有不同的颜色。这种变异现在正从生态学的角度进行研究。

"Variations" found in the population of some aeolid nudibranchs were examined morphologically, and also molecularly when necessary.Two color morphs of Facelinella quadrilineata were found to be two separate species. They possess very different penes. The difference is not easily detectable in preserved specimens, and this should be the reason why they had been considered to be variations of a single species. This study also proved that the genus Facelinella was invalid.Two similar species of the genus Sakuraeolis, which had been given a same scientific name, were properly described with suitable different names. Alive specimens of the two aeolids were easily identified by a few external characters including color pattern, while when preserved such characters become obscure and no longer useful to distinguish the two. The radular morphology was found to be the only character to distinguish them in preserved condition.Color variation of Chlamylla atypica, an aeolid newly recorded from Japan was also examined. For this aeolid no difference was found in external morphology except for color and size, nor in internal morphology, which strongly suggested that it was to be variation of a single species. This was also supported by comparison of mitochondorial DNA of COI region.With these studies completed with help of this grant-in-aid, it is revealed external morphology in alive condition provides much more information than we used to expect for species identification. This will encourages identification of species by photographs and publishing databases.A widely distributed aeolid with zooxanthellae, Pteraeolidia ianthina, is known to be differ in color among localities. This variation is now under investigation in the light of ecology.