Abstract
Megalopas of 15 brachyuran crab species collected in the open sea plankton, and unknown until now, were identified using DNA barcodes (COI and 16S rRNA). Specimens belonging to the families Portunidae, Pseudorhombilidae and Xanthidae (Crustacea, Decapoda, Brachyura), and corresponding to the species Achelous floridanus, Arenaeus mexicanus, Callinectes amnicola, C. arcuatus, C. ornatus, C. toxones, Charybdis (Charybdis) hellerii, Portunus hastatus, Thalamita admete, Scopolius nuttingi, Etisus odhneri, Liomera cinctimanus, Neoliomera cerasinus, Pseudoliomera variolosa, and Williamstimpsonia stimpsoni, are described and illustrated, and compared with other congeneric species previously described. We also provide a new geographical record for N. cerasinus and the most remarkable features for each species.
Highlights
Megalopas of 15 brachyuran crab species collected in the open sea plankton, and unknown until now, were identified using DNA barcodes (COI and 16S rRNA)
A total of 462 megalopas were collected in the course of two different projects, 375 in the MALASPINA Expedition, and 87 in the MAF cruise. These megalopas were initially sorted according to their general external morphology in main morphotypes groups and, from each of these; representatives were selected for DNA barcoding
Partial mitochondrial COI and/or 16S rRNA gene sequences were obtained for 139 larvae, leading to the identification of 67 megalopas from 34 species
Summary
Megalopas of 15 brachyuran crab species collected in the open sea plankton, and unknown until now, were identified using DNA barcodes (COI and 16S rRNA). One of the biggest problems is to identify the larval stages of this group, because the larvae are distinguishable but not matched with the correct adult form[12,13] This problem causes obstacles in studies such as plankton ecology or population c onnectivity[14,15]. The identification of megalopas from plankton samples based on morphological characters is a difficult task and in many cases is not possible do it at genus or species level[19,23] In this sense, DNA barcoding provide rapid and accurate identifications of plankton specimens[24,25,26,27], being the only limitation the need of previous knowledge of DNA markers for the species in accessible databases as Genbank or BOLD
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