Abstract
In the Indo-West Pacific, intertidal slugs of the genus Platevindex Baker, 1938 are common in mangrove forests, where they typically live on the roots and trunks of mangrove trees. These slugs are easily distinguished from most onchidiids by their hard notum and narrow foot, but despite their large size and abundance, species diversity and geographic distributions have remained a mystery. With the aid of new collections from across the entire Indo-West Pacific, the taxonomy of Platevindex is revised using an integrative approach (natural history field observations, re-examination of type specimens, mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences, and comparative anatomy). In this monograph, nine species of Platevindex are recognized, including one new to science: P. amboinae (Plate, 1893), P. applanatus (Simroth, 1920) comb. nov., P. aptei Goulding & Dayrat sp. nov., P. burnupi (Collinge, 1902) comb. nov., P. coriaceus (Semper, 1880), P. latus (Plate, 1893), P. luteus (Semper, 1880), P. martensi (Plate, 1893) and P. tigrinus (Stoliczka, 1869) comb. nov. Five species names are recognized as junior synonyms, four of which are new, and two Platevindex names are regarded as nomina dubia. One new subspecies is also recognized: P. coriaceus darwinensis Goulding & Dayrat subsp. nov. Most species were previously known only from the type material and many new geographic records are provided across the Indo-West Pacific, from South Africa to the West Pacific (Japan, New Ireland and New Caledonia).
Highlights
In the tropics and subtropics, mangrove forests are home to a diverse array of invertebrates, fish and birds, and provide important ecosystem services (Dorenbosch et al 2005; Lee 2008; Luther & Greenberg 2009; Vo et al 2012)
The number of parsimony-informative sites in our alignments is reported without outgroups; the number of sites is smaller than the number of sites in the alignments used for phylogenetic analyses
18 specific names have been originally or subsequently combined with the generic name Platevindex, though authors in the past often used Plate’s (1893) generic name Oncis instead of Platevindex. Five of these names are regarded as valid species names of Platevindex: Onchidium amboinae, Onchidium coriaceum, Oncis lata, Onchidium luteum and Oncis martensi
Summary
In the tropics and subtropics, mangrove forests are home to a diverse array of invertebrates, fish and birds, and provide important ecosystem services (Dorenbosch et al 2005; Lee 2008; Luther & Greenberg 2009; Vo et al 2012). Mangrove forests were once widespread across South-East Asia, but forest coverage has declined substantially since the beginning of the 21st century due to land reclamation for development, agriculture, aquaculture and logging (Spalding et al 1997; Valiela et al 2001; Long et al 2014; Richards & Friess 2016). These forests are further threatened by rising sea levels due to climate change (Lovelock et al 2015). In order to conserve healthy mangrove ecosystems, it is imperative to understand the diversity, biogeography and natural history of mangrove molluscs
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