Abstract
We describe two new species of springsnails (genus Pyrgulopsis) for populations from the middle Fork and upper East Fork of the Gila River Basin (New Mexico) that had been previously identified as P. gilae. We also restrict P. gilae to its originally circumscribed geographic range which consists of a short reach of the East Fork Gila River and a single spring along the Gila River (below the East Fork confluence). These three species form genetically distinct lineages that differ from each other by 3.9–6.3% for mtCOI and 3.7–8.7% for mtNDI (the latter data were newly obtained for this study), and are diagnosable by shell and penial characters. Collectively the three species form a strongly supported clade that is distinguished from other congeners by the unique presence of two glandular strips on the dorsal surface of the penial filament. These findings suggest that the conservation status of P. gilae, which was recently removed from the list of candidates for listing as endangered or threatened by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, should be revisited and that the two new species may also merit protective measures given their narrow geographic ranges.
Highlights
Pyrgulopsis is a large genus (137 species; Hershler et al 2013) of freshwater gastropods that is distributed in North America west of the Mississippi River basin
The TCS analyses recovered three well differentiated haplotype groups composed of specimens from along the lower East Fork and main stem Gila River, Middle Fork Gila River (II), and the upper East Fork Gila River (III)
We have shown that, in contrast, P. gilae is a monophyletic species complex diagnosed by a unique penial character—the presence of two glandular strips on the dorsal surface penial filament. (Note that P. merriami [Pilsbry and Beecher], which is distributed in an isolated basin in southeastern Nevada, has a somewhat different pattern consisting of two glands on the dorsal and one gland on the ventral surface of the filament; Hershler 1994)
Summary
Pyrgulopsis is a large genus (137 species; Hershler et al 2013) of freshwater gastropods that is distributed in North America west of the Mississippi River basin. Pyrgulopsis gilae (Taylor, 1987) was described for specimens from single springs along the lower East Fork (type locality) and main stem Gila River in Grant County, New Mexico. Hurt (2004) delineated substantial divergence in mtCOI sequences (6.8% average) between specimens from the upper East Fork reach (Wall Spring) and three localities within the originally circumscribed range of P. gilae. In a more comprehensive survey of COI variation within P. gilae, populations from the upper East Fork, Middle Fork, and lower East Fork (and main stem Gila River) reaches were resolved as three divergent (3.9-6.3%) sub-clades which were postulated to be distinct species (Liu et al 2013). We document a congruent pattern of variation in a second mitochondrial DNA marker (NDI) and delineate morphological differences supporting recognition of the upper East Fork and Middle Fork Gila River populations as new species, which are described
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