Abstract
We discovered the first record of Pheretima vungtauensis from Manipur, North-eastern Region, India, heretofore only known from Vietnam. Because the morphological traits of this species are similar to those of Metaphire houlleti, we undertook an integrated taxonomic approach to evaluate the relationships of these two species. We obtained CO1 (DNA barcode) sequences and analysed them with various bioinformatic tools namely, Assemble Species by Automatic Partitioning (ASAP), Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery (ABGD), Refined Single Linkage (RESL), General Mixed Yule Coalescent (GMYC), Poisson Tree Processes (PTP), Bayesian Poisson Tree Processes (bPTP) and Multi-rate Poisson Tree Processes (mPTP) and compared the results. The Manipur CO1 sequences of P. vungtauensis form a monophyletic group including the type specimen P. vungtauensis in Bayesian Inference (BI) and Maximum Likelihood (ML) trees. Results of seven different species delimitation approaches were in congruence with P. vungtauensis except the result obtained from GMYC with ultrametric BI tree, which bifurcated P. vungtauensis into two lineages. Comparison of morphological data reveals presence of dense micronephridia on spermathecal ducts, lack of genital markings, spheroidal shape of opening slit of copulatory pouches and presence of 2–3 stalked genital marking glands on or near spermathecal duct as the main diagnostic character of P. vungtauensis from M. houlleti. We conclude that M. houlleti is polyphyletic, or frequently misidentified and/or should be separated into different group of species. It is also clear that P. vungtauensis is a distinct species, distinguishable from M. houlleti by morphological and molecular data.
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Financial support of Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India and administrative support of Principal Chief Conservator Forest, Manipur is gratefully acknowledged.
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Tiwari, N., James, S.W. & Yadav, S. First record of Pheretima vungtauensis (Clitellata: Megascolecidae) in India and its phylogenetic relationship with Metaphire houlleti. Biologia 77, 1805–1818 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-022-01074-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-022-01074-y