Cryptorchestia ruffoi sp. n. from the island of Rhodes (Greece), revealed by morphological and phylogenetic analysis (Crustacea, Amphipoda, Talitridae)

By

Davolos, Domenico
De Matthaeis, Elvira
Latella, Leonardo
Vonk, Ronald

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2017

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

652

Pages

37-54

Subjects

Biogeography , freshwater , Greek islands , molecular phylogeny , taxonomy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.652.11252

 

Abstract

A new Cryptorchestia species, Cryptorchestia ruffoi Latella & Vonk, sp. n. from the island of Rhodes in south-eastern Greece, can be distinguished on the basis of morphological and phylogenetic data. Morphological analysis and DNA sequencing of mitochondrial and nuclear protein-coding genes indicated that this species is related to C. cavimana (Cyprus) and C. garbinii (Mediterranean regions, with a recent northward expansion). Results supported a genetic separation between the Cryptorchestia species of the east Mediterranean regions and those of the northeast Atlantic volcanic islands examined in this study (C. canariensis, C. gomeri, C. guancha, and C. stocki from the Canary islands, C. monticola from Madeira, and C. chevreuxi from the Azores). The Mediterranean and Atlantic Cryptorchestia species appear to be also morphologically distinct. Cryptorchestia ruffoi sp. n., C. cavimana, C. garbinii, and C. kosswigi (Turkish coast) clearly have a small lobe on the male gnathopod 1 merus. This character was the main diagnostic difference between Cryptorchestia (sensu Lowry, 2013) and Orchestia. However, among the six northeast Atlantic island Cryptorchestia species only C. stocki has a small lobe on the merus of gnathopod 1. Reduction or loss of the lobe in the Atlantic Island species cannot be ruled out; however, molecular phylogenetic analysis leads us to presume that this lobe independently evolved between the east Mediterranean Cryptorchestia species and C. stocki from Gran Canaria.