The taxonomic status of the headshield slug genus Nakamigawaia Kuroda and Habe, 1961 (Gastropoda: Cephalaspidea: Aglajidae), with the description of a new species from the Western Pacific

ABSTRACT Nakamigawaia is a poorly understood genus of Aglajidae sea slugs with only two species formally ascribed. In this paper we explore new morpho-anatomical characters using stereo and scanning electron microscopy and employ different molecular approaches (a cytochrome c oxidase sub-unit I gene phylogeny, the Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery species delimitation method, and genetic distances) to compare specimens across the geographical span of the genus and from two distinct chromatic morphotypes occurring in the Western Pacific (blackish morph and white-dotted morph). Our results support the conspecificity of these two morphs and show they belong to an undescribed species here named Nakamigawaia nakanoae sp. nov. The species differs from the type species of the genus, N. spiralis, by the presence of a distinct open-dilated shell and differs from its Western Atlantic congener N. felis by subtle differences in the shell, male reproductive system and caudal lobes. Genetically (COI uncorrected p-distance) the two species (N. nakanoae and N. felis) are 18.8–20.1% distinct. The definition of the genus Nakamigawaia is discussed and the current assignment to the latter of lineages other than the type species is questioned.

• Publication year

  2021

• Venue

  Journal of Natural History

• Publication date

  2021-09-17

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1080/00222933.2021.1986165
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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