Congratulations to Miranda Dennis, who completed their PhD in Mike Hart’s lab at SFU and Ka’ala Estores Pacheco who completed their MSc with Ángel Valdés at California Polytechnic, Pomona.

The overall finding from the research was that the two North American species of Hermissenda do not interbreed. Miranda’s work was based on genetic sequences that showed both that the two species were distinct and there was little or no gene flow between the two populations. Ka’ala’s work was focused on lab observations of mating behaviour – members of each species were happy to mate with each other, but when pairs were from opposite species, no mating was observed.

---

Dennis, M.T., Ka’ala Estores‐Pacheco, A.L., Williams, K., Wyeth, R.C., Valdés, Á., Mooers, A.Ø., and Hart, M.W. 2026. Demographic Models and Behavioral Assessments Uncover Distinct Species Histories in the Pseudocryptic Nudibranch Genus Hermissenda. Ecology and Evolution 16(2): e73045. doi:10.1002/ece3.73045.