Systematic rearrangements in an all-genus phylogeny of side-gilled slugs (Heterobranchia: Pleurobranchida)
Author
Moles, Juan
Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 643, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
juan.moles@ub.edu
Author
Brenzinger, Bastian
SNSB-Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, Section Mollusca, Münchhausenstrasse 21, D- 81247 Munich, Germany
Author
Berning, Maria I.
SNSB-Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, Section Mollusca, Münchhausenstrasse 21, D- 81247 Munich, Germany
Author
Martynov, Alexander
Zoological Museum, Moscow State University, Bolshaya Nikitskaya Str. 6, 125009 Moscow, Russia
Author
TatianaKorshunova
Koltzov Institute of Developmental Biology RAS, Moscow 119334, Russia
Author
Schrödl, Michael
SNSB-Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, Section Mollusca, Münchhausenstrasse 21, D- 81247 Munich, Germany & Biozentrum Ludwig Maximilians University and GeoBio-Center LMU Munich, Germany
text
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society
2024
2023-12-26
202
2
1
11
https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlad162
journal article
10.1093/zoolinnean/zlad162
0024-4082
14422258
Systematics of
Pleurobranchidae
Although not supported in the ML and BI phylogenies,
Pleurobranchidae
is for the first time recovered as a clade in our analyses. All valid, representative genera within the family are for thefirsttimepresent, namely
Bathyberthella
,
Berthella
,
Berthellina
,
Boreoberthella
,
Pleurehdera
, and
Pleurobranchus
.
Berthella
is consistently found paraphyletic and four clades classifiable as three different genera are recovered. Bearing that in mind, most genera are found monophyletic with maximum support, although how genera are related to each other is not always well supported.
Berthellina
is recovered monophyletic with full support, the species
B. edwardsii
(Vayssière
, 1897) from the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic (94.3–99% identity) is the sister-group to the Indo-Pacific species. The latter group is composed of
B. citrina
(Rüppell and Leuckart
, 1828) from the Red Sea (100% identity),
B. punctata
(Quoy and Gaimard
, 1832) from
Australia
, and a clade of
B. delicata
(Pease
, 1861) species with probabl hidden speciation spanning from the Red Sea, the
Maldives
(
Fig. 1E
), and Hawaii (90.7–93.6% identity). All
Bathyberthella antarctica
Willan and Bertsch 1987
(
Fig. 1F
) specimens from across the Weddell Sea and the Scotia Arc conformed to a monophyletic clade (bs = 100, pp = 1) with a 95–100% identity.
A clade containing
Berthella perforata
(Philippi
, 1844) specimens from
Italy
(99.1–100% identity) and the
type
species of
Berthella
,
B. plumula
(Montagu
, 1803), with specimens from the Northeast Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea (98.7–100% identity) was fully recovered only in the ML analysis (bs = 100). This clade also included
B. ocellata
(Delle Chiaje
, 1830) from
Greece
(
Fig. 1G
),
B. medietas
Burn
, 1962 from
Australia
,
B. sideralis
Lovén
, 1846 from
Sweden
, and
B. platei
(Bergh
, 1898) from
15 m
depth
Chile
and
250 m
depth in the
Falkland Islands
(99.3– 99.5% identity). A second ‘
Berthella’
clade (bs = 99, pp = 1) is largely composed of the
B. stellata
(Risso
, 1826) group agreeing to the recently recognized species in Ghanimi
et al.
(2020b) yet adding some more complexity. The
B. stellata
(
Fig. 1I
) group is found in tropical and temperate waters from the Eastern Pacific, Caribbean, and Mediterranean seas, including
B. andromeda
Ghanimi
, Schrödl, Goddard
et al
., 2020,
B. strongi
(MacFarland
, 1966),
B. nebula
Ghanimi
et al
.
, 2020, and
B. vialactea
Ghanimi
et al
.
, 2020. This latter group is sister to a Pacific one composed of
B. pellucida
(Pease
, 1860) from Hawaii,
B
. cf.
postrema
from
New Caledonia
, our newly sequenced
B
. cf.
‘
stellata
’ from
Japan
, and
Pleurehdera haraldi
Ev.Marcus and Er.Marcus
, 1970 from
Palmyra Atoll
in the middle of the Pacific. Since
Pleurehdera haraldi
is the
type
and only species of the genus and nests within this second ‘
Berthella
’ clade, we suggest transferring all the above-mentioned species to the genus
Pleurehdera
. Interestingly, only in the BI analysis, a sister relationship between specimens belonging to
Berthella
s.s
.
and the
Pleurehdera
clade was recovered yet without full support (pp = 0.95). Sister to both
B. stellata
and the Pacific group we found
B. martensi
(Pilsbry
, 1896), with specimens from
Australia
and the Pacific side of
Panama
(99.3% identity) and a likely hidden species from the
Maldives
(
c.
85% identity) (
Fig. 1H
). This clade deserves the erection of a new genus (see Systematic description). A fourth ‘
Berthella
’ clade (bs = 92, pp = 0.99) is composed of the North Pacific clade that includes specimens of
Berthella californica
(Dall
, 1900) from California to
Panama
,
two specimens
of
Boreoberthella augusta
Martynov and Schrödl 2009
(
Fig. 1J
) from
Japan
(100% identity), and
Berthella chacei
(J.Q.Burch
, 1944) from
Russia
,
Canada
, and the
USA
(99–99.7% identity). Given the present phylogenetic scenario and the morphological characters discussed below, we hence establish
Boreoberthella californica
comb. nov.
(
Fig. 1K
) and
Boreoberthella chacei
comb. nov.
Finally, we recovered a monophyletic clade of
Pleurobranchus
species
(bs = 100, pp = 1) (
Fig. 1L
), containing the
type
species
P. peronii
Cuvier
, 1804 and mainly recovering the species groups already studied by Goodheart
et al.
(2015).