Tethydidae

Tethydidae is a family of dendronotid nudibranch gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Dendronotoidea.^[3]

Tethydidae
Tethys fimbria on the sand bottom shows its broad oral hood on the left (the head end) and the body with two rows of spotted cerata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Order:	Nudibranchia
Suborder:	Cladobranchia
Superfamily:	Dendronotoidea
Family:	Tethydidae Rafinesque, 1815
Type genus
Tethys
Diversity[1]
2 genera 15 valid species and 3 doubtful species
Synonyms[2]
Melibidae Forbes, 1844 Fimbriidae O'Donoghue, 1926 (inv.) Tethymelibidae Bergh, 1890 (n.a.)

The original spelling (subfamily) is Tethydia. It was placed on the Official List by Opinion 1182 of ICZN (1981: 174), which also ruled that the name should be corrected to Tethydidae (Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).

Taxonomy

This family is within the clade Cladobranchia and has no subfamilies (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).^[2]

Genera

There are two^[1] genera within the family Tethydidae:

• Melibe Rang, 1829
• Tethys Linnaeus, 1767 - the type genus,

Genera brought into synonymy

• Chioraera Gould, 1852 accepted as Melibe Rang, 1829
• Fimbria O'Donoghue, 1926: synonym of Tethys Linnaeus, 1767 (invalid: junior homonym of Fimbria Megerle, 1811.)
• Jacunia de Filippi, 1867 accepted as Melibe Rang, 1829
• Melibaea synonym of Melibe Rang, 1829
• Meliboea [sic] : Melibe Rang, 1829 (incorrect subsequent spelling [by Forbes, 1838] of Melibe Rang, 1829)
• Propemelibe Allan, 1932 accepted as Melibe Rang, 1829

Description

Species in this family do not possess a radula.^[4]