Meeting Abstract
Arminidae is a poorly supported family of nudibranchs within Cladobranchia that is grouped together by a single shared characteristic of an oral veil. This study aims to revise the phylogenetic relationships of Armina and Dermatobranchus, two dominant Arminid genera in the Indo-Pacific. Previous morphological phylogenies of Arminidae have placed these genera as sister taxa, citing Dermatobranchus as a more derived genus that has lost its secondary gill and performs gas exchange across its epidermis. Even with this distinction, new species of Dermatobranchus are often identified and described incorrectly as Armina due to ambiguous distinctions between genera and a large number of shared morphological traits. Recent morphological phylogenies have also illuminated cryptic species complexes within Dermatobranchus, which has added to the diversity and confusion surrounding this understudied group. This project represents the first comprehensive molecular phylogeny for Indo-Pacific Arminidae and includes over 100 specimens constituting a mix of roughly 50 described and undescribed species. We compared our new molecular phylogeny consisting of 16s, 28s, and COI genes to the existing morphological phylogeny of Arminidae to determine if the characters used for species delimitation are sufficient, and where species boundaries occur across and within genera.
