Rhagada revisited: on the taxonomy of species from the Kimberley and Dampierland, Western Australia (Pulmonata, Camaenidae)

Abstract

The genus Rhagada is the second most diverse camaenid genus in Australia. We examined anatomical and mitochondrial characters of previously unidentified material from the Kimberley that was earmarked to potentially represent new species in recently published molecular phylogenetic studies. Our comparisons revealed that specimens from Gibbings Island (‘R. sp. Gibbings’) were morphologically and genetically most similar to Rhagada cygna from the Dampier Peninsula. Hence, ‘R. sp. Gibbings’ is considered to be identical to R. cygna. In addition, we found that R. cygna as so delimited is not clearly distinguished from the second species on the Dampier Peninsula, Rhagada bulgana. Both species differ rather subtly in anatomical and mitochondrial characters, indicating their close relationships and potentially incomplete evolutionary differentiation. Furthermore, we describe two new species based on comparative morphology and mitochondrial sequences: Rhagada worora n. sp. from the Prince Regent Reserve in the Kimberley and Rhagada karajarri n. sp. from Dampierland. The present study confirms that species in Rhagada are best identified by means of both morphological and molecular data.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:556E1866-6F9E-4CC0-8ACF-CD56E929501F

Keywords:

• 16S
• genital anatomy
• molecular phylogeny
• shell morphology

Acknowledgements

This work has been made possible through financial support from the Australian Government (ABRS grant RF211-10 to Frank Köhler). Field work in the Prince Regent River Reserve was funded by Frog Watch, Museum of Western Australia. Special thanks are due to Paul Doughty and Vince Kessner for collecting and providing samples. In addition, we gratefully acknowledge Francesco Criscione, Michael Elliot, Sue Lindsay and Michael Shea (all Australian Museum) for helping with anatomical dissections, illustrations, photography, scanning electron microscopy, DNA laboratory work and mapping. We thank Winston Ponder, John Stanisic and Michael Johnson for their constructive reviews of the manuscript, which helped to improve the quality of this work.