Integrative taxonomy reveals that not all European reddish runcinids are the same: the case of the Runcina ferruginea Kress, 1977 (Gastropoda, Heterobranchia, Runcinida) species-complex, with the description of a new genus
Ana Karla Araujo
A * , Marta Pola B , Manuel Antonio E. Malaquias C , Fabio Vitale D E and Juan Lucas Cervera A F
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar y Ambientales, Campus de Excelencia Internacional del Mar (CEIMAR), Universidad de Cádiz, Avenida República Saharaui s/n, Apartado 40, E-11510 Puerto Real (Cádiz), Spain.
B Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Campus de Excelencia Internacional UAM + Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), C/ Darwin, 2, E-28049 Madrid, Spain.
C Section of Taxonomy and Evolution, Department of Natural History, University Museum of Bergen, University of Bergen, PB7800, NO-5020 Bergen, Norway.
D Museo di Storia Naturale del Salento, I-73021 Calimera (Lecce), Italy.
E Associazione Salento Sommerso, Via Giuseppe Doria, 31, I-73100 Salento (Lecce), Italy.
F Instituto Universitario de Investigación Marina (INMAR), CEIMAR, Universidad de Cádiz, Avenida República Saharaui s/n, Apartado 40, E-11510 Puerto Real (Cádiz), Spain.
Invertebrate Systematics 37(1) 61-77 https://doi.org/10.1071/IS22014
Submitted: 1 March 2022 Accepted: 17 November 2022 Published: 18 January 2023
© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing.
Abstract
Owing to the small size and cryptic morphology, runcinids are among the most difficult marine heterobranchs to study and consequently one of the groups about which little is known. Only recently were molecular tools and phylogenetics first employed to study the systematics. The charismatic European reddish-brown species Runcina ferruginea Kress, 1977, first described from Plymouth, UK, is a paradigm of the challenges facing the taxonomy of these slugs. Due to similarities between R. ferruginea and the Croatian species R. zavodniki described by Thompson, 1980, the latter has been considered as a junior synonym. However, molecular phylogenetics revealed the occurrence of a complex of four species masked under the name R. ferruginea. Through an integrative approach, combining multi-locus (COI, 16S rRNA and histone H3) molecular phylogenetics and morpho-anatomical characters (shape and colouration of body, radula, gizzard plates and reproductive systems) based on specimens from south-western UK, and the central and western Mediterranean Sea (Spain, France, Italy and Croatia), we redescribe R. ferruginea proper and confirm R. zavodniki as a valid species. Also, two new species are described, one belonging to the genus Runcina (R. lupiaensis sp. nov.) and the other to the new genus Pseudoruncina gen. nov. (Pseudoruncina marinae gen. et sp. nov.). Our study exposes the occurrence of cryptic diversity among runcinids and stresses the need for additional work to understand the diversity of this group of minute molluscs.
ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:2611EF7D-7762-40CE-BD04-B6D9AB70F2AA.
Keywords: biodiversity, integrative taxonomy, new genus, phylogeny, Runcinida, Runcinidae, species complex, species delimitation.
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