First occurrence of the genus Pleurobranchaea Leue, 1813 (Pleurobranchida, Nudipleura, Heterobranchia) in British waters, with the description of a new species

By

Turani, Martina
Carmona-Barnosi, Leila
Barry, Peter
Close, Hayden L
Bullimore, Ross
Cervera-Currado, Lucas

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2024

Original Publication

Zoosystematics and evolution

Volume

100

Series / Issue

Issue: 1

Pages

49--59

Subjects

Atlantic Ocean , Gulf of Cadiz , Mediterranean Sea , molluscan diversity , Pleurobranchaea britannica , Pleurobranchaeidae , southwest UK , systematics

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia Pensoft

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.100.113707

 

Abstract

In the north-eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea, the pleurobranchid genus Pleurobranchaea Leue, 1813 is represented by two species, Pleurobranchaea meckeli (Blainville, 1825) and Pleurobranchaea morosa (Bergh, 1892). The former is a well-known species distributed from northern Spain to Senegal and the Mediterranean Sea, while the second is a poorly-described species. In this contribution, species delimitation analyses (ABGD and COI/16S p-distances) identified a third undescribed Pleurobranchaea species from samples collected in south-western UK waters and the Gulf of Cadiz (SW Spain). This new species, Pleurobranchaea britannica sp. nov., is also supported by several morphological synapomorphies. The British specimens constitute the first occurrence of the genus Pleurobranchaea in UK waters.