Five new pseudocryptic land planarian species of Cratera (Platyhelminthes: Tricladida) unveiled through integrative taxonomy

PeerJ

article

Ana Paula Goulart Araujo¹  Fernando Carbayo²  Marta Riutort⁴  Marta Álvarez-Presas⁴ 

[1] Museu de Zoologia, Universidade de São Paulo;Laboratório de Ecologia e Evolução, Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades, Universidade de São Paulo;Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo;Departament de Genètica, Microbiologia i Estadística, Facultat de Biologia and Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat ,(IRBio), Universitat de Barcelona

关键词: Continenticola;    Flatworms;    Genes;    Morphology;    New molecular marker;    Histology;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.9726

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundCratera is a genus of land planarians endemic to the Brazilian Atlantic forest. The species of this genus are distinguished from each other by a series of external and internal characters, nonetheless they represent a challenging taxonomic issue due to the extreme alikeness of the species analysed in the present work. To resolve these difficulties, we have performed morphological analyses and used three nuclear markers (ribosomal 18S and 28S, Elongation Factor, a new anonymous marker named Tnuc813) and two mitochondrial fragments (Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene, and a fragment encompasing NADH deshydrogenase subunit 4 gene, trnF and the beginning of the Cytochrome c oxidase I gene) in an integrative taxonomic study.MethodsTo unveil cryptic species, we applied a molecular species delimitation approach based on molecular discovery methods, followed by a validation method. The putative species so delimited were then validated on the basis of diagnostic morphological features.ResultsWe discovered and described four new species, namely Cratera assu, C. tui, C. boja, and C. imbiri. A fifth new species, C. paraitinga was not highly supported by molecular evidence, but was described because its morphological attributes are unique. Our study documents for the genus Cratera the presence of a number of highly similar species, a situation that is present also in other genera of land planarians. The high number of poorly differentiated and presumably recent speciation events might be explained by the recent geological history of the area.

【 授权许可】

CC BY