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Issue: Vol. 5723 No. 2: 25 Nov. 2025
Type: Article
Published: 2025-11-25
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5723.2.5
Page range: 245-267
Abstract views: 45
PDF downloaded: 4

Developmental types and a new cryptic species of Chicoreus (Gastropoda: Muricidae) from Papua New Guinea

Research Associate; Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique; rue Vautier 29; 1000 Brussels; Belgium.; Institute of Systematics; Evolution; Biodiversity (ISYEB); Muséum national dHistoire naturelle (MNHN); CNRS; SU; EPHE; UA CP 51; 57 rue Cuvier; 75005 Paris; France.
Department of Biology and Biotechnologies “Charles Darwin”; Sapienza University of Rome; Rome; Italy.; Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e della Toscana “M. Aleandri”; Rome; Italy.
Department of Biology and Biotechnologies “Charles Darwin”; Sapienza University of Rome; Rome; Italy.
Department of Biology and Biotechnologies “Charles Darwin”; Sapienza University of Rome; Rome; Italy.
Mollusca Gastropoda Muricidae new species larval development cox1

Abstract

The two Indo-West Pacific muricid gastropods Chicoreus brunneus (Link, 1807) and C. microphyllus (Lamarck, 1822), are commonly thought to develop via a non-planktotrophic larval stage, as witnessed by their paucispiral larval shell. We have found specimens morphologically ascribable to these two taxa, but with multispiral protoconchs clearly indicating planktotrophic development, and have addressed their status by comparing sequences of the DNA barcode fragment (cytochrome c oxidase I, cox1) from specimens of the two complexes with both protoconch types.

While the genetic data are not conclusive for the C. brunneus complex (although suggestive of a cryptic diversity), the specimens of the C. microphyllus complex with multispiral protoconch are clearly not conspecific with those with paucispiral protoconch, and are here described as a new taxon: C. phyrtos sp. nov.

 

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How to Cite

Houart, R., Russini, V., Fassio, G. & Oliverio, M. (2025) Developmental types and a new cryptic species of Chicoreus (Gastropoda: Muricidae) from Papua New Guinea. Zootaxa, 5723 (2), 245–267. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5723.2.5