Phylogenetic relationships of North American nymphophiline gastropods based on mitochondrial DNA sequences

Abstract

Phylogenetic relationships of 36 nymphophiline species representing 10 genera were inferred from mtCOI sequence data and compared to recent morphology‐based classifications of this group. Parsimony and maximum likelihood analyses of the molecular data set suggested monophyly of the North American nymphophilines and a sister or otherwise close relationship between this fauna and a European species assigned to the subfamily. Results also supported a previously hypothesized close relationship between the predominantly freshwater nymphophilines and the brackish‐water genus Hydrobia. Our analyses resolved a North American nymphophiline subclade composed of Floridobia, Nymphophilus, and Pyrgulopsis, and depicted the remaining North American genera (Cincinnatia, Marstonia, Notogillia, Rhapinema, Spilochlamys, Stiobia) as either a monophyletic or paraphyletic group. Two of the large North American genera (Floridobia, Marstonia) were supported as monophyletic groups while monophyly of Pyrgulopsis, a western North American group containing > 100 species, was equivocal. North American nymphophiline phylogeny implies that vicariance of eastern and western North American groups was followed by a secondary invasion of eastern coastal areas from the west. We attribute this to dispersal of salt‐tolerant progenitors along the Gulf of Mexico coast