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Systematics and phylogenetic species delimitation within Polinices s.l. (Caenogastropoda: Naticidae) based on molecular data and shell morphology

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Abstract

Here, we present the first phylogenetic analysis of a group of species taxonomically assigned to Polinices sensu latu (Naticidae, Gastropoda) based on molecular data sets. Polinices s.l. represents a speciose group of the infaunal gastropod family Naticidae, including species that have often been assigned to subgenera of Polinices [e.g. P. (Neverita), P. (Euspira), P. (Conuber) and P. (Mammilla)] based on conchological data. The results of our molecular phylogenetic analysis confirm the validity of five genera, Conuber, Polinices, Mammilla, Euspira and Neverita, including four that have been used previously mainly as subgenera of Polinices s.l. Our results furthermore indicate a close relationship of members of the Polinicinae to Sinum—a genus traditionally placed in the naticid subfamily Sininae. We furthermore present conchological analyses to determine the validity of shell characters used traditionally in species designation in the genus Polinices. Our data reveal several characters (e.g. protoconch, operculum colour, parietal callus) to be informative, while many characters show a high degree of homoplasy (e.g. umbilicus, shell form). Among the species arranged in the genus Polinices s.s., four conchologically very similar taxa often subsumed under the common Indo-Pacific species P. mammilla are separated distinctly in phylogenetic analyses. Despite their striking conchological similarities, none of these four taxa are related directly to each other. Additional conchological analyses of available name-bearing type specimens and type figures reveal the four “mammilla”-like white Polinices species to include true P. mammilla and three additional species, which could be assigned to P. constanti (replacement name for P. dubius), P. jukesii and possibly P. tawhitirahia, based on protoconch and operculum characteristics.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr. Philippe Bouchet of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (MNHN, Paris, France) and Ian Loch of the Australian Museum (AM, Sydney, Australia) for providing ethanol-preserved specimens and for comments and help with taxonomic questions. We also thank Kathie Way and Amelia MacLellan for access granted to the mollusc collection of the Natural History Museum (NHM, London, UK) and for the permission to publish the photos taken of the syntypes of N. dubia Récluz, 1844, N. flemingiana Récluz, 1844 and N. jukesii, Reeve 1855. We also thank Dr. John Healy of the Queensland Museum (QM, Brisbane, Australia) and Dr. Brian Wilson of the Victoria Museum, (VM, Melbourne, Australia) for access to the malacological collection and seabed material, and for permission to publish the photos taken of the holotype of N. controversa Pritchard & Gatliff, 1913. We are grateful to Dr. Yves Finet (MHNG, Geneva, Switzerland), Dr. Wilma Blom (Auckland Museum, Auckland, New Zealand), Dr. Erica Sjöllin (Museum of Evolution, Uppsala University, Uppsala) and Prof. Ole S. Tendal (Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen) for permission to publish the photos of the syntypes of N. flemingianus Récluz, 1844, P. tawhitirahia Powell 1965, Nerita mammilla Linnaeus, 1758 and Mamma albula Chemnitz, 1758 [non-binomial], respectively. We thank Dr. Ralph Tollrian (Ruhr University Bochum, Germany) and Dr. Dustin Marshall (University of Queensland) for making their digital binocular microscopes available for taking pictures of protoconchs. We would like to thank Hugh Morrison of Kingsley, Western Australia, for providing ethanol-preserved specimens for sequence analyses and Dr. Lyle Vail and Dr. Anne Hogget of the Lizard Island Research Station, Queensland, Australia, for their kind help during collecting. We additionally thank Dr. Nico Michiels and Dr. Nils Anthes (University of Tuebingen) for the possibility to work on the Lizard Island Research Station. We would like to thank Annette Tolle and Björn Peters for expert sequencing. This paper is an output from the Great Barrier Reef Seabed Biodiversity Project, a collaboration between the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Queensland Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries (QDPIF) and the Queensland Museum (QM); funded by the CRC Reef Research Centre, the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation and the National Oceans Office led by R. Pitcher (Principal Investigator, CSIRO), P. Doherty (AIMS), J. Hooper (QM) and N. Gribble (QDPIF). We also wish to thank the field team led by D. Gledhill (CSIRO), the crew of the FRV Gwendoline May (QDPI & F) and RV Lady Basten (AIMS). Field and laboratory work were conducted in accordance with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) permit G05/16526.1 to T.H. and M.H. T.H. is funded by a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Hu 1806/1-1, Hu 1806/2-1) and the Malacological Society of Australasia.

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Fig. S1

Phylograms obtained through Bayesian inference based on the 16S and 28S gene fragments. Posterior probabilities are indicated at the nodes. Branches supported by values > 0.95 are not shown. Polytomies are due to the cut-off value specified for the consensus tree (50% used as the default value in MrBayes) (JPEG 136 kb)

High resolution image (TIFF 488 kb)

Fig. S2

Phylograms obtained through Bayesian inference based on the 18S and H3 gene fragments. Posterior probabilities are indicated at the nodes. Branches supported by values > 0.95 are not shown. Polytomies are due to the cut-off value specified for the consensus tree (50% used as the default value in MrBayes) (JPEG 121 kb)

High resolution image (TIFF 432 kb)

Fig. S3

Conchological variability between specimens of different size in Polinices species. a Polinices mellosus (Lizard Island). b Polinices sp. 2 (Lizard Island) (JPEG 34 kb)

High resolution image (TIFF 3567 kb)

Table S1

Characters and character states analysed in the conchological analysis (DOCX 95 kb)

Table S2

Taxa of white Polinices species worldwide, with type information and literature reference to the original descriptions. Altogether, 55 taxa have been found in the literature and are listed alphabetically in three groups. Group 1: White Polinices taxa (21) from the Indo-Pacific region. Group 2: White Polinices taxa (10, plus 1 non-binomial name) with unknown type locality. Questionable type localities based on assumed species synonymy are marked with a ?. Group 3: White Polinices taxa (24) from regions outside the Indo-Pacific area. H holotype, S Syntype, pS possible syntype, P paratype, pP possible paratype, NT neotype, L lectotype, PL paralectotype, pPL possible paralectotype, Uk type unknown (DOCX 129 kb)

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Huelsken, T., Tapken, D., Dahlmann, T. et al. Systematics and phylogenetic species delimitation within Polinices s.l. (Caenogastropoda: Naticidae) based on molecular data and shell morphology. Org Divers Evol 12, 349–375 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13127-012-0111-5

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