The first phylogenetic and species delimitation study of the nudibranch genus Gymnodoris reveals high species diversity (Gastropoda: Nudibranchia)

Abstract

Nudibranchs are charismatic marine gastropods that lack a shell in the adult stage. While most nudibranchs feed on sessile animals such as sponges, bryozoans, and cnidarians, the nudibranch genus Gymnodoris Stimpson, 1855 evolved a more active and predatory lifestyle, including sea slug predation, cannibalism, and oddly enough, fish-fin parasitism. At the beginning of our work, no phylogenetic hypothesis existed for the genus, nor a clear picture of how Gymnodoris is related to other nudibranchs. Here we set out to reconstruct Gymnodoris phylogeny, investigate species diversity, and clarify the status of the genus name Analogium, which had been proposed for members of the genus with a linear gill filament arrangement. We present the first phylogenetic hypothesis for Gymnodoris, reconstructed by maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference using two mitochondrial and two nuclear loci, with gill filament arrangement plotted on the phylogeny. The backbone of the phylogeny remains unresolved with theseloci, however, we found that Gymnodoris comprises three main well-supported clades, which we refer to as the “subornata”, “citrina” and “varied” clade, the latter two clades being comprised of several well-supported subclades. The sister group to Gymnodoris is a clade including the genera Vayssierea and Lecithophorus. Based on ABGD and PTP species delimitation methods, we conservatively estimate 65–70 species comprise our dataset. We further estimate that approximately 81% of the species we sampled are undescribed, and note that a linear gill filament arrangement has evolved multiple times within the genus. Gymnodoris is only monophyletic when the species with a linear gill arrangement are included. Therefore, at this time, we agree with the synonymy of Analogium striata with Gymnodoris striata by Rudman and Darvell (1990) and that the genus name Analogium is warranted as a junior synonym of Gymnodoris. Given the extensive undescribed diversity, and lack of resolution at some of the nodes in the phylogeny, patterns of diversification in diet are impossible to discern at this time and will require a large effort to both describe Gymnodoris species diversity and the diets of these candidate species.