Evidence for a species complex in Indialona ganapati (Chydoridae)

Abstract

Indialona ganapati (Petkovski 1966), is one of the three known cladoceran endemic species from India. It is also the only one of these species that is monotypic and endemic to central India. In this study we report on habitat shifts for this species as well as presence of parthenogenetic and ephippial females throughout the year, phenomena that are uncommon in most species of the family Chydoridae. These factors prompted us to undertake a study evaluating the taxonomic status of this species in collections from India using morphological and molecular methods. This included recognition of some degree of morphometric diversity based on sexual differentiation and reproductive patterns which were not correlated with speciation events. Analysis of our data does, however, suggest that I. ganapati can be split into two recent clades. Also, phylogenetic as well as haplotype network analysis of our data suggests the presence of a sibling species complex of I. ganapati in the river Godavari. This suggests that reconsideration of taxonomic status of this species may be appropriate. In addition, this study underscores the potential utility of using COI gene based ‘barcode’ DNA sequences for recognizing the existence of cryptic species among the cladocera.

Keywords:

• Indialona ganapati
• chydoridae
• COI
• species complex
• cryptic species

Acknowledgements

We are thankful to Prof. David Haymer for language corrections and improvising the content of the manuscript. Thanks to Dr. K. Altaff for his support in taxonomic identifications. Many thanks to lab colleagues, Amol Kalyankar, Chandrakant Jadhav, Nilesh Zakade, Dinesh Nalage, Ganesh Korhale for their cooperation during the laboratory and field works. Pleased by the cooperation of Dr. Alexy Kotov and Dr. N. N. Smirnov for providing reprints.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by University Grants Commission, New Delhi under UGC MRP grant no. F.2-3/2014-15 and Department of Scienec and Technology, Government of India [SR/SO/AS-58/2011].