Aiteng

Aiteng is a genus comprising three species of sea slug, A. ater and A. mysticus being found in intertidal zones while A. marefugitus is fully terrestrial.^[1][2][3] Aiteng is the only genus in the family Aitengidae. The generic name Aiteng is derived from the name of a black puppet Ai Theng, which is one of the shadow play (Nang yai) puppets in southern Thailand.^[1]

Aiteng
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Family:	Aitengidae Swennen & Buatip, 2009[1]
Genus:	Aiteng Swennen & Buatip, 2009[1]

Taxonomy

Swennen & Buatip (2009)^[1] tentatively classified Aitengidae within the Sacoglossa,^[1] but they noted that some characteristics of the nervous system are similar to those of the Cephalaspidea and Acochlidioidea (mentioned as Acochlidea).^[1]

Aitengidae clusters within the Hedylopsacea as sister group to Pseudunelidae and Acochlidiidae or basal within Hedylopsacea.^[4] Philippe Bouchet (2010)^[5] classified Aitengidae within the superfamily Hedylopsoidea.^[5]

Species

Species in the genus Aiteng include:

• Aiteng ater Swennen & Buatip, 2009^[1]
• Aiteng mysticus Neusser, Fukuda, Jörger, Kano & Schrödl, 2011^[2][6] – This species was found in Hisamatsu, Miyako Island, Okinawa, Japan.^[4] Morphologically it clearly belongs to the Aitengidae, but shows differences to Aiteng ater at genus or species level.^[4] Its affinity to Aiteng ater is confirmed by comparison of the mitochondrial 16S rRNA sequences.^[4]
• Aiteng marefugitus Kano, Neusser, Fukumori, Jörger & Schrödl, 2015 - species of sea slug that, remarkably, became terrestrial during the Cenozoic.^[3]

Distribution

The distribution of Aiteng ater includes Thailand.^[1] The distribution of Aiteng mysticus includes Japan.^[4] The distribution of Aiteng marefugitus includes Palau.

Ecology

Aiteng ater lives "amphibiously" in mangrove forests in the intertidal zone, on the mud.^[1]

References

This article incorporates CC-BY-2.0 text from the reference.^[4]

1. Swennen C. & Buatip S. "Aiteng ater, new genus, new species, an amphibious and insectivorous sea slug that is difficult to classify [Mollusca: Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia: Sacoglossa(?): Aitengidae, new family]". The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 57(2): 495–500. PDF Archived 2012-03-02 at the Wayback Machine.
2. Timea P. Neusser; Hiroshi Fukuda; Katharina M. Jörger; Yasunori Kano; Michael Schrödl (2011). "Sacoglossa or Acochlidia? 3D-reconstruction, molecular phylogeny and evolution of Aiteng ater and Aiteng mysticus n. sp. (Aitengidae, Gastropoda)". Journal of Molluscan Studies. 77 (4): 332–350. doi:10.1093/mollus/eyr033.
3. Kano, Yasunori; Neusser, Timea P.; Fukumori, Hiroaki; Jörger, Katharina M.; Schrödl, Michael (2015). "Sea-slug invasion of the land". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 116 (2): 253–259. doi:10.1111/bij.12578.
4. Jörger, K. M.; Stöger, I.; Kano, Y.; Fukuda, H.; Knebelsberger, T.; Schrödl, M. (2010). "On the origin of Acochlidia and other enigmatic euthyneuran gastropods, with implications for the systematics of Heterobranchia". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 10 (1): 323. Bibcode:2010BMCEE..10..323J. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-10-323. PMC 3087543. PMID 20973994.
5. Philippe Bouchet (2011). "Aitengidae". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved May 7, 2012.
6. Timea P. Neusser; Katharina M. Jörger; Michael Schrödl (2011). "Cryptic species in tropic sands – interactive 3D anatomy, molecular phylogeny and evolution of meiofaunal Pseudunelidae (Gastropoda, Acochlidia)". PLoS ONE. 6 (8): e23313. Bibcode:2011PLoSO...623313N. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023313. PMC 3166138. PMID 21912592.