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ABSTRACT
We assessed the range of morphological variation in Devaleraea mollis from the Northwest Pacific. Genetic analyses based on the 5' end of the genes coding for cytochrome c oxidase I (COI-5'), cytochrome oxidase b (cob) and photosystem I reaction centre apoprotein A1 (psaA), as well as the ITS1–5.8S–ITS2 (ITS) fragment of rDNA, revealed that the morphospecies D. mollis includes two species. The alga from Japan previously identified as ‘Palmaria palmata’ resolved as sister to D. stenogona and is here described as D. inkyuleei sp. nov. The species is morphologically similar to D. mollis, but it has a more southern range. Devaleraea inkyuleei is only known from Japan (Honshu and Hokkaido) and from Aniva Bay (Sakhalin Island, Russia).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We are deeply grateful to divers A.S. Oskolkov, K.K. Dudka and I.N. Ivanov for their assistance in collecting seaweeds during the 56th expedition aboard the R/V Academic Oparin to the Sea of Okhotsk and Northwest Pacific. We thank Dr H. Endo (Kagoshima University) for his help in collecting Devaleraea at Kuji City, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. We also thank Dr T. Kitayama (National Museum of Nature and Science) for his assistance with examining herbarium specimens of Devaleraea in TNS.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
A.V. Skriptsova: seaweed collection, original concept, light microscopy, manuscript preparation. M. Suzuki: seaweed collection, DNA sequencing, manuscript preparation. A.A. Semenchenko: DNA sequencing, analysis of molecular data, manuscript preparation.
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00318884.2022.2117932.