Abstract
This study describes a new species of the genus Diopatra Audouin and Milne-Edwards, 1833. Diopatra micrura sp. nov., was found on the western and the southern coast of Portugal and can be distinguished from other Diopatra species by a characteristic striped colour pattern of the antennae and palps. Other diagnostic morphological characteristics include ventral parapodial lobes, crescentic nuchal organs, ceratophores with 12–15 rings, and subacicular hooks from chaetigers 8–13. This species was found mainly in fine or very fine sand with variable fines content, from the intertidal region up to 50 meters depth. Molecular studies of mitochondrial DNA genes 16S rDNA and COI confirmed the distinction of D. micrura sp. nov., from other European Diopatra species. The percentage of nucleotides divergence between the new species and D. neapolitana and D. marocensis was respectively 16% and 17% for COI and 12% and 15% for 16S. The nucleotide sequence for the 16S gene was always the same in all specimens of D. micrura and two haplotypes were found for the COI gene. The discovery of D. micrura sp. nov., brings the number of Diopatra species known from Portugal to three and from Europe to four; a key to the four species is provided.References
Audouin, J.V. & Milne-Edwards, H. (1833) Classification des Annélides, et description de celles qui habitent les côtes de la France. Annales des Sciences Naturelle, Paris, 28, 187–247.
Augener, H. (1918) Polychaeta. In ‘Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Meeresfauna West-Afrikas’ (ed. W. Michaelsen). 2, 67–625. Friedrichsen & Co.,Hamburg.
Berke, S.K., Mahon, A.R., Lima, F.P., Halanych, K.M., Wethey, D.S. & Woodin, S.A. (2010) Range shifts and species diversity in marine ecosystem engineers: patterns and predictions for European sedimentary habitats. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 19, 223–232.
Budaeva, N. & Fauchald, K. (2008) Diopatra tuberculantennata, a new species of Onuphidae (Polychaeta) from Belize with a key to onuphids from the Caribbean Sea. Zootaxa, 1795, 29–45.
Clarke, K.R. & Gorley, R.N. (2006) PRIMER v6: User Manual/Tutorial. PRIMER-E, Plymouth, 190 pp.
Dahlgren, T., Åkesson, B., Schander, K., Halanych, M. & Sundberg, P. (2001) Molecular phylogeny of the model annelid Ophryotrocha. Biological Bulletin, 201,193–203.
Delle Chiaje, S. (1841) Descrizione e Notomia degli Animali Invertebrati della Sicilia Citeriore osservati vivi negli anni 1822–1830. Tomo 3 Molluschi Acefali, Bracciopedi, Cirropedi, Crostacei, Anellosi. Stabilimento Tipografico di C. Batelli e Comp, Naples.
Doeglas, D.J. (1968) Grain-size indices, classification and environment. Sedimentology, 10, 83–100.
Folmer, O., Black, M., Hoeh, W., Lutz, R. & Vrijenhoek, R. (1994) DNA primers for amplification of mitochondrial cytocrome c oxidase subunit I from diverse metazoan invertebrates. Molecular Marine Biology and Biotechnology, 3, 294–295.
Halanych, K.M. & Janosik, A.M. (2006) A review of molecular markers used for Annelid phylogenetics. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 46, 533–543.
Knox, GA. & Cameron, D.B. (1971) Port Phillip Survey 1957–1963. Victoria, Australia. part 2. No. 4. Polychaeta. Memoirs of the National Museum Victoria, 32, 21–42.
Montagu, G. (1813) Descriptions of several new or rare animals principally marine, found on the south coast of Devonshire. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, series 1, 11, 18–21.
Nygren, A. & Sundberg, P. (2003) Phylogeny and evolution of reproductive modes in Autolytinae (Syllidae, Annelida). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 29, 235–249.
Palumbi, S., Martin, A., Romano, S., McMillan, W. O., Stice, L. & Grabowski, G. (1991) The simple fools guide to PCR, version II. University of Hawaii, Honolulu, 46 pp.
Paxton, H. (1986) Generic revision and relationships of the family Onuphidae (Annelida: Polychaeta). Records of the Australian Museum, 38, 1–74.
Paxton, H. (1998) The Diopatra chiliensis confusion – redescription of D. chiliensis (Polychaeta, Onuphidae) and implicated species. Zoologica Scripta, 27, 31–48.
Paxton, H., Fadlaoui, S.& Lechapt, J.P. (1995) Diopatra marocensis, a new brooding species of Onuphidae (Annelida: Polychaeta). Journal of Marine Biological Association of the U.K., 75, 949–955.
Quintino, V., Rodrigues, A.M., & Gentil, F. (1989) Assessment of macrozoobenthic communities in the lagoon of Óbidos, western coast of Portugal. Scientia Marina, 53, 645–654.
Rodrigues, A.M., Pires, A., Mendo, S. & Quintino, V. ( 2009) Diopatra neapolitana and D. marocensis from the Portuguese coast: morphological and genetic comparison. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 85, 609–617.
Schulze, A. (2006) Phylogeny and genetic diversity of Palolo worms (Palola, Eunicidae) from the Tropical North Pacific and the Caribbean. Biological Bulletin, 210, 25–37.
Stryer, L. (1999) Biochemistry, W. H. Freeman, New York, 1064 pp.
Tamura, K. Dudley, J., Nei, M. & Kumar, S. (2007). MEGA4: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis (MEGA) software version 4.0. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 24, 1596–1599.