The family Aeolidiidae Gray, 1827 (Gastropoda Opisthobranchia) from Brazil, with a description of a new species belonging to the genus Berghia Trinchese, 1877

Abstract

Species belonging to the family Aeolidiidae (Opisthobranchia: Nudibranchia) were studied. The specimens were collected from localities in two states of Brazil (Rio de Janeiro and Bahia). Some Western Atlantic specimens of Berghia Trinchese, 1877 were previously assigned to Berghia verrucicornis (A. Costa, 1864). The study of the specimens from the Brazilian coast allowed us to observe diverse characters, such as the presence of orange markings at the bases of the cerata, which differ from the specimens of the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic. The species B. verrucicornis is different from Western Atlantic Berghia. Our Brazilian specimens belong to a new species, Berghia marcusi sp. nov. The species Berghia creutzbergi (Marcus & Marcus, 1970), re-described in this paper, constitutes the first record from Brazil (Buzios, Rio de Janeiro State), and new morphological data are provided for Berghia benteva (Marcus, 1958). This is the first record of B. benteva since its original description in 1958. The Brazilian specimens of Spurilla neapolitana (Delle Chiaje, 1841) were examined and compared with specimens from the Eastern Atlantic. © 2008 The Linnean Society of London.