Dondice occidentalis
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| Dondice occidentalis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| A live individual of Dondice occidentalis | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| Order: | Nudibranchia |
| Suborder: | Cladobranchia |
| Family: | Myrrhinidae |
| Genus: | Dondice |
| Species: | D. occidentalis |
| Binomial name | |
| Dondice occidentalis Engel, 1925 | |
Dondice occidentalis is a species of sea slug, an aeolid nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Myrrhinidae.[1]
According to Gonzalez et al. (2013),[2] Dondice occidentalis and Dondice parguerensis probably represent an example of incipient sympatric speciation.[3] Molecular analyses support partially the differentiation of these species, but were inconclusive, being based only on two genes which are less variable than the COI barcoding gene normally used to distinguish closely related species.[3] Further research is needed in order to resolve this, but COI sequences on GenBank suggest that there could be three species within this species complex.[4]
Distribution
Distribution of Dondice occidentalis includes Florida, Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela, Curaçao, Bonaire, Venezuela, Bermudas, Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Turks and Caicos, Grenada, Sint Maarten, Martinique, Trinidad, Brazil and Panama.[3]
