Tritoniidae
Family of gastropods
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tritoniidae is a taxonomic family of nudibranchs in the suborder Cladobranchia, shell-less marine gastropod molluscs.[1] This family includes some of the largest known nudibranchs, with the NE Atlantic species Tritonia hombergii reaching 20 cm in length. It is the only family in the monotypic superfamily Tritonioidea.
| Tritoniidae | |
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| A live individual of Tritonia festiva in situ | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| Order: | Nudibranchia |
| Suborder: | Cladobranchia |
| Superfamily: | Tritonioidea Lamarck, 1809 |
| Family: | Tritoniidae Menke, 1828 |
| Synonyms | |
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Distribution
These nudibranchs occur worldwide in warm and temperate seas and in the coldest waters and deep sea, wherever the octocorals which they eat are found.
Ecology
Members of the family Tritoniidae feed on octocorals, including sea pens, alcyonarian soft corals, and gorgonians, often being cryptic in shape and colouration upon them.[2] They share this trait with the Arminidae which were previously thought to be only distantly related, but have been shown to be closely related to the Tritoniidae by a recent study.[3]
Genera
The genera in the family Tritoniidae include:
- Duvaucelia Risso, 1826
- Marianina Pruvot-Fol, 1931
- Marionia Vayssiere, 1877
- Paratritonia Baba, 1949
- Tochuina Odhner, 1963
- Tritonia Cuvier, 1798
- Tritonicula Korshunova & Martynov, 2020
- Tritonidoxa Bergh, 1907
- Tritoniella Eliot, 1907
- Tritoniopsis Eliot, 1905