Persian Gulf Sea Research Articles

Investigation of antibacterial and anticancer effects of novel niosomal formulated Persian Gulf Sea cucumber extracts

Pharmaceutical companies worldwide are scrambling to develop new ways to combat cancer and microbiological pathogens. The goal of this research was to investigate the antibacterial, anticancer, and apoptosis effects of novel niosomal formulated Persian Gulf Sea cucumber extracts (SCEs). Sea cucumber methanolic extracts were prepared and encapsulated in niosome nanoparticles using thin-film hydration. The compound was made up of Span 60 and Tween 60 blended with cholesterol in a 3:3:4 M ratios. Characterization of niosome-encapsulated SCE evaluated by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The disk diffusion method and microtiter plates were used to investigate the antimicrobial activity. The effect of niosome-encapsulated SCE on cell proliferation and apoptosis induction was studied using MTT and Annexin V, respectively. The expression of apoptosis-related genes, including Bax, Fas, Bax, Bak, and Bcl2, was studied using quantitative real-time PCR. Niosome-encapsulated SCE with a size of 80.46 ± 1.31 and an encapsulation efficiency of 79.18 ± 0.23 was formulated. At a concentration of 100 μg/ml, the greatest antimicrobial effect of the niosome-encapsulated SCE was correlated to Staphylococcus aureus, with an inhibition zone of 13.16 mm. The findings of the study revealed that all strains were unable to produce biofilms at a concentration of 100 μg/ml niosome-encapsulated SCE (p < 0.001). The survival rate of cancer cells after 72 h of exposure to niosome-encapsulated SCE was 40 ± 3.0%. Encapsulated SCE in niosomes inhibited cell progression in MCF-7 cells by increasing G0/G1 and decreasing S phase relative to G2/M phase; as a result, it activated the apoptosis signaling pathway and led to the induction of apoptosis in 69.12 ± 1.2% of tumor cells by increasing the expression of proapoptotic genes (p < 0.001). The results indicate that sea cucumber species from the Persian Gulf are a promising source of natural chemicals with antibacterial and anticancer properties, paving the path for novel marine natural products to be discovered. This is the first demonstration that niosome-encapsulated SCE contains antibacterial and anticancer chemicals that, according to their specific characteristics, boost antitumor activity.

Evaluation of the 13 May 2018 frontal dust storm in Shiraz: Stable isotopes signature, source apportionment, and concentration of potentially toxic elements

• Shiraz dust storm event mainly originated from the Saudi Arabia Peninsula. • The aerosol composition was affected by Persian Gulf sea salt and soil erosion in Iran and Iraq. • The target PTEs had the highest concentration in the central parts of the city. • These results were based on the mineralogy, δ 18 O and δ 13 C values, PMF and HYSPLIT modeling, and elemental ratios. Frontal dust storms are rare but important weather events in southern Iran affecting visibility and air quality, especially in urban areas. This study investigated the main characteristics of the 13 May 2018 frontal dust storm in Shiraz. The evaluation was based on geostatistical models, and mineralogical, elemental and isotopic data. The mean and median concentrations of major and trace elements followed the order Ca > Al > Fe > Mg > K > Na > Ti > Mn > Zn > V > Cr > Ni > Cu > Pb > Co > Cd, in agreement with the mineralogical composition of dust samples. The spatial distributions of the potentially toxic elements (PTEs) show that the concentrations were higher in the central sectors of city, likely due to the higher population density and traffic volume. Integrated source characterization coupled with positive matrix factorization (PMF) identified that the PTEs sources were geogenic, anthropogenic, and sea salt related. Geochemical isotopic methods, δ 18 O and δ 13 C values along with hybrid single-particle Lagrangian integrated trajectory (HYSPLIT) analysis suggest that the dust storm mainly originated from Saudi Arabia. However, local lithological units and resuspended street dust also played an important role in the elemental distributions. These results also indicate that combining various datasets can be beneficial in characterizing the sources of dust storms and their components in southwestern Iran.

Residual flexural capacity of pre-cracked RC beams exposed to chloride penetration at the sea surface temperature

This study deals with the behavior of pre-cracked reinforced concrete beams exposed to a chloride environment. Three-point flexural tests were carried on 14 beam specimens. Damaged and undamaged concrete beams were exposed to chloride ions at different cycles in two manners, wetting–drying cycles and full immersion exposure conditions at the Persian Gulf sea surface temperature (PGSST) for three periods of 63, 125 and 188 days. The variation of crack pattern, crack width, load–deflection curves, corrosion ratio of steel bar, percentage of chloride ion penetration and correlation between crack width and corrosion ratio of steel were examined in the studied specimens. The results showed that steel corrosion ratio was directly correlated with crack width and exposure conditions; also, wetting–drying cycles had more negative effects than full immersion on the studied beam specimens. The free chloride ion content of the samples with wetting–drying cycles was higher than the samples with full immersion. The pre-cracked beam specimens’ flexural capacity and ductility ratio exposed to a chloride environment decreased up to 17% and 40%, respectively.

On the occurrence of Persian Gulf Sea Snake, Hydrophis lapemoides (Gray, 1849) (Reptilia, Squamata, Elapidae, Hydrophiinae), along the coast of Bangladesh

We provide the first evidence of the presence of the Persian Gulf Sea Snake, Hydrophis lapemoides (Gray, 1849), along the coast of Bangladesh. This species was assumed to exist in there, but neither specimens nor confirmed observations exist until now. We document here the first confirmed record of H. lapemoides based on a freshly collected and taxonomically verified specimen from coastal Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi specimen had the following diagnostic characters: 55 black bands, a dorsal scale composition of 35:51:43, 342 ventrals, one pre-ocular, two post-oculars, 2+3 temporals, 8 supralabials (II largest and contact prefrontals; III&amp;ndash;IV contact orbit) and 8 infralabials (I&amp;ndash;IV contact genials).

A prelude to the molecular systematics and diversity of combtooth blennies (Teleostei: Blenniidae) in the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea

Despite being labelled as impoverished, with low species richness for many taxonomic groups, beta diversity of the northern marginal waters of the Indian Ocean is found to be high. To facilitate future investigation of near-shore marine fish diversity in this region, we established a COI reference database for intertidal combtooth blennies (Blenniidae) and document the results of the first molecular taxonomic inventory of this group along the northern coasts of the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea. A combined use of various molecular species delimitations, phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses was employed on a final library including this local database and archived sequences to define phylogenetic relationships and species boundaries, and to compare the results to the existing morphology-based taxonomy. The absence of reciprocal monophyly between two species, Istiblennius lineatus and I. pox, and the presence of deep phylogeographic breaks in another two widely distributed species, Antennablennius bifilum and Omobranchus punctatus was documented, indicating the potential existence of hidden taxonomic diversity in both taxa. Distinct phylogeographic patterns were discovered between different species of blenniid within the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea, which are discussed in reference to regional paleoclimate and life history. Establishment of this local database for the blenniids of the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea not only can serve as a reliable database for accurate specimen identification, but also is highly relevant to conservation programs, further taxonomic works and advanced evolutionary analyses on the blenniids of the Indo-Pacific.

Eco-Friendly Innovation for Electrical Conductivity Reduction of Persian Gulf Sea water Using Highly Efficient Recyclable Sorbent

The use of sea water containing of Reverse Osmosis effluent is very serious for the daily living of the coastal residents especially for farmers. In this study, one-year field test was carried for electrical conductivity reduction of Persian Gulf sea water in Iran, during 2017 and 2018. The test was conducted in two filters each with diameter 2.5 cm (or 0.025 m) and 18.5 cm (or 0.185 m). In the filters, crumb mineral mussel was used as one of main components from filter materials. The minor components of filter materials were comprised of coarse-grained gravel, fine-grained activated carbon, and fine-grained sand. The well water as low-saline water for background of sea water treatment and sea water as super-saline water were treated. The test was performed as pilot, batch, and column design with three replicates. The volume of daily treated sea water and efficiency of reduction electrical conductivity and salinity were determined. Volume of treated sea water by each of the filters was at least 10 times diameter each of those. Maximum reduction efficiency of electrical conductivity and salinity in filter with 2.5 cm (or 0.025 m) diameter was 97.09% (from 85.2 to 2.48 mS/cm or from 8.52 to 0.248 S/m) and it was 98.2% (from 61 to 1.1), respectively. Maximum reduction efficiency of the parameters in filter with 18.5 cm (or 0.185 m) diameter was 97.5% (from 84.8 to 2.12 mS/cm or from 8.48 to 0.212 S/m) and it was 97.69% (from 60.7 to 1.4), respectively. Electrical conductivity in outlet water from filters was less than 3 mS/cm (or 0.3 S/m), below the permissible limit recommended by World Health Organization and also Iranian Department of Environment for agriculture and irrigation usage. Based on these results a non-continuous method seems promising in the biological growing phase in filters.

Molecular Identification of the Persian Gulf Sea Hare (Aplysia sp.) Based on 16s rRNA Gene Sequence

Molecular Identification of the Persian Gulf Sea Hare (Aplysia sp.) Based on 16s rRNA Gene Sequence

Otolith Morphology: A Hidden Tool in the Taxonomic Study of Goatfishes (Teleostei: Perciformes: Mullidae).

Goatfishes (Teleostei, Mullidae) are a group of mainly coastal fishes that form an important part of food chains, and also have commercial value. In the marine waters of Iran, they are found in the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea (Gulf of Oman). This study evaluated whether otolith morphology can be used to distinguish of species and genera, and also to interpret whether otoliths of the same species differ among two studied marine systems. To do this objective, the otolith morphology of ten species belonging to three genera were analyzed by SEM photography and shape analysis. Among the morphometric variables, relative rostrum length was found to be the most important otolith variable for discriminating Mulloidichthys (RRL = 32.29 ± 0.59) and Parupeneus (RRL = 37.39 ± 1.10), while rectangularity (REx) was the most important shape index for discriminating Mulloidichthys (REx = 0.99 ± 1.94) from Parupeneus (REx = 0.77 ± 1.21). By considering otolith morphology, Upeneus showed a better separation than the two other genera. The otoliths of Upeneus are diagnosed by short dorsal length (RDL = 69.35 ± 1.51), higher rostrum height (RRH = 53.63 ± 1.99), short rostrum (RRL = 31.12 ± 1.99), and antirostrum lengths (RanL = 12.38 ± 1.51). The most diverged phenotype within the genus Parupeneus was found for the otoliths of P. rubescens, and the most diverged phenotype within the genus Upeneus was found for the otoliths of U. sundaicus. The otoliths of the same species did not demonstrate large variation between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. This study provides additional morphological evidence for the separation of goatfishes at the species and genus levels. We also underline that the slight observed differences between the otoliths of two marine systems are mainly caused by the ecological differences known between these two main systems.

Significant Anticancer Activity of a Venom Fraction Derived from the Persian Gulf Sea Anemone, Stichodactyla haddoni.

Chemotherapy is still one of the main therapeutic regimens in cancer patients but its toxicity is a hard challenge for every patient yet. One of the available solutions is tracing for non-toxic anticancer agents from natural resources. Numerous proteins and peptides in the venom of sea anemones are potentially useful agents with pharmacological properties. Concerning to significance of this issue, the current study was aimed to finding a non-toxic anticancer fraction from the venom of the Persian Gulf sea anemone, Stichodactyla haddoni. Anticancer and hemolytic activity of crude venom was evaluated and followed by fractionation using RP-HPLC. Breast, Brain, and Colon cancer cell lines were selected to assessment of anticancer activity and toxicity. IC50 of crude venom on the abovementioned cancer cell lines was as 4.13, 6.58, and 31.54 µg, respectively. According to the results obtained by paired sample t-test and comparison of toxicity of the fractions in normal cell line, F10, designated as hadonin, was determined as the candidate anti-cancer fraction. The non-toxic dose of F10 was 20 ng in which showed respectively 66, 29, and 7 anticancer activities on breast, brain, and colon cancer cell lines. According to results, anticancer activity of hadonin is of high pharmaceutical value to follow its therapeutic potency in animal model. In conclusion, the venom of the Persian Gulf sea anemone contains a potential anticancer agent with reasonable activity at nanogram level against three kinds of cancer cells with no toxicity on normal cells.

A search for anti-carcinogenic and cytotoxic effects of Persian Gulf sea snake (Enhydrina schistosa) venom on hepatocellular carcinoma using mitochondria isolated from liver

Common techniques for the treatment of Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have not been successful, and thus the design and discovery of new compounds with better anti-cancer function are needed. Snake venom is among the most important compounds used by researchers to the treatment of various cancers. This study was designed to evaluate the toxicity effect of Persian Gulf snake venom (Enhydrina schistosa) on hepatocytes and mitochondria isolated from HCC rats model. HCC has been induced in rats with diethylnitrosamine (DEN) and 2-acetylaminofluorene (2-AAF). Then rat hepatocytes were isolated with collagen perfusion technique. The results showed that E. schistosa (5, 10, 20 and 40 µg/ml) increases the level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, collapse in mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), swelling in mitochondria, and cytochrome c release only in hepatocytes and mitochondria isolated from the HCC group. These results proposed that E. schistosa could be considered as a promising complementary therapeutic agent for the treatment of HCC.

Preparation of the Persian Gulf Echinometra mathaei Organic Extracts and Investigation of Their Antibacterial Activity

Background: Marine organisms such as Echinoderms have secondary metabolites, which are antimicrobial naturally. Various extracts of echinoderms organs possess pharmacological activities, including anticancer, antimicrobial, antifungal, antiviral, and anti-inflammatory functions. Objectives: The purpose of this research was to assay the Persian Gulf sea urchin secondary metabolites for antimicrobial effectiveness. Methods: Sea urchins (Echinometra mathaei) were collected from the Boushehr tide coasts, Persian Gulf. Gonads, gut, tests, shell, and spines were carefully dissected from sea urchins, washed with tap water, and separated for the extraction procedure. All organs were extracted with 1:3 volumes (v/w) of methanol, chloroform, and n-hexane by maceration method for 72 hours at room temperature. The antimicrobial activity of the sea urchin tissue extracts was tested by well diffusion agar method. Results: All extracts of the sea urchin E. mathaei at 50 mg/mL concentration exhibited in vitro antimicrobial activity against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, including Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Bacillus subtilis, and two fungi, including Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger. The antibacterial activity of the sea urchin extracts varied with the solvent used for the bacterial strains. Conclusions: The results clearly showed the high antimicrobial activity of test and spines of the Persian Gulf sea urchin extracts against various Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.

Carlo Celentano. “I rapporti politici tra gli arsacidi e i regni vassalli del golfo persico nella seconda metà del I secolo d.C.”

The young researcher reflects about the so-called southern Parthian vassal kingdoms, Persis, Elymais and Characene and their connection with the Persian Gulf and the international trade. A series of coins mint by a certain Vologases, lord, and found at Shiraz in Persis, is to connect with Great King Vologases I’ s policy in the second half of the 1st century AD, aimed at gaining control over the Persian Gulf sea routes though the increasing Parthian influence on the southern Parthian vassal k...

The Physical Study of Vertical Structure of Temperature, Salinity and Density Layer Structure Between Persian Gulf and Oman Se

Always oceanographers pay attention to layer structure in the sea environment. Creation of layer structures is because of some phenomenons like double diffusion, internal waves, turbulence modular mixing. In this paper with examination of vertical structure of temperature, salinity and density between Persian Gulf and Oman Sea in different seasons, layer structures appear clearly. Also, countors of the same physical parameters show the existence of regular structure which prove internal waves resulting from the Persian Gulf and flow into the Oman Sea.

Environmental risk assessment of harmful algal blooms case study: Persian Gulf and Oman Sea located at Hormozgan Province, Iran

Persian Gulf and Oman Sea are considered to be one of the most important Iranian aquatic ecosystems. Over the past few decades, frequency and geographical distribution of harmful algal bloom increased, worldwide, that may also pose a threat to human health and aquatic ecosystems, and the “health” of local and regional economies. Hormozgan province, located in southern Iran covers Persian Gulf and Oman Sea ecological regions with unique global importance. Therefore, the present study was conducted to evaluate the environmental risk of harmful algal bloom, in the studied area. To this aim, to determine the extent of severity, probability and significance of each risk, Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) (points 1–10) and the Analytical hierarchy process methods (AHP) were used. According to results, Harmful Algal Blooms effects on massive mortality of fish, disturbance in performance of Reverse osmosis (RO) plants for seawater desalination, damage to fisheries and aquaculture industry, creating job changes for the local fishermen, outbreak of seafood-borne illness, with the values of 0.861, 0.774, 0.771, 0.702, 0.661, were reported as the most important environmental risk of the harmful algal bloom in the studied area, respectively. Hence, to prevent, and reduce environmental risks, suggestions were presented.

Noise Analysis of Satellites Altimetry Observations for Improving Chart Datum within the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea

Sea level usually undergoes constant changes. Some of which such as tidal changes have been recognized as a part of the sea nature which possess a particular significance. In the present study, modeling of tidal variations of sea level in Persian Gulf and Oman Sea is conducted using a 22-years dataset from TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1 and Jason-2 altimetry missions in a conjunction with coastal tide gauge data. To do so, a time series is determined for every point of a satellite in the sea, which means that, in 772 effect points of the satellite altimetry and 7 coastal stations over sea surface, several maps, including sea level map, Datum chart map, and codomain maps of tidal components M2, S2, K1, and O1, have been presented through noise analysis and observation synthesis. In this regard, first, the structure of the functional models is investigated to examine the noise feature of satellite altimetry observations, assuming that the observations contain colored noise. It is assumed that the models are affected by combination of the following noises: 1) white-flicker-random walk, 2) white-flicker- autoregressive, 3) white-random walk-autoregressive, 4) white-flicker-random walk- autoregressive, 5) white-flicker, 6) white-random walk, 7) flicker-random walk. Here, for statistical models of 1 to 4, the variances of autoregressive and random walk noises are estimated to be negative which reveals the inappropriateness of the random model for altimetry observations. For statistical models of 5 to 7, the variances of these three models are estimated to be positive which reveals the appropriateness of these models. Accordingly, the analysis of maximum likelihood function for these three models was investigated. Our results show that the highest value of similarity function belongs to the structure of the second model, which indicates that the existing noise in the time series of satellite altimetry observations would be a combination of white and flicker noises. By obtaining an appropriate functional model for satellite altimetry observations, we analyzed and investigated two important components of the, mean sea level and datum chart. This analysis has been considered in two conditions: 1) the weight matrix of observations is of a unit matrix type, i.e. the existing noise model in observations is white noise, and 2) the weight matrix of observations is obtained by a combination of white and flicker noise. Finally, the resultant difference between two components of the mean sea level and the chart datum is presented. The obtained results suggest that using a precise noise model for observations at the highest level can lead to an approximate difference of +25 cm and -20 cm, and an approximate difference of 8 cm on average in comparison with the condition that observations of unit weight are used.

Integrated power generation cycle (Kalina cycle) with auxiliary heater and PCM energy storage

Kalian cycle is a modified Rankine cycle for power generation, that its working fluid is a mixture of ammonia-water instead of pure water and can be driven in higher temperatures comparing to the Rankine cycle. In this study a hybrid Kalina power cycle and solar thermal flat plate collector using phase change material (PCM) as thermal energy storage material is introduced and analyzed. Bandar Aabas (a city in south of Iran), because of its sunny days and use of the Persian Gulf sea water for cooling in the condenser has been selected. The amount of solar fraction in year is 83.8%. This integrated process requires 53.85 GWh heat load during the year that 45.13 GWh of energy per year in the system, is supplied by the sun during the hours of 7–19 and released energy from the PCM during the night from 19.01 to 6.59. Rest of the needed heat load for the integrated system of 8.72 GWh per year is provided with auxiliary heater. By using energy and exergy balance equations, all components were analyzed. According to the results, thermal efficiency of the Kalina cycle is 6.12%. Results of the exergy analyses show 23.21% of the total destroyed exergy in the cycle, occurred in one of the heat exchangers as the main component wasting exergy. Also it was found that most the exergy efficiency is related to the one of the heat exchangers and flash separator with 99.24% and 99.11%, respectively.

Improving the Persian Gulf sea surface temperature simulation by assimilating the satellite data via the ensemble Kalman

One of the indicators representing the permissible performance of a marine model is the capability of model in providing an accurate spatiotemporal distribution of the thermal structure of domain. Data assimilation is taken into account as an expedient platform in order to achieve this goal. In this paper, the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) was applied as a data assimilation scheme to enhance the sea surface temperature (SST) simulation and whereupon the underwater temperature of the Persian Gulf in the finite volume community ocean model (FVCOM). The daily satellite measured SST data that obtained from advanced very high-resolution radiometer pathfinder were considered as observational assimilation data. The comparisons between the results of both proposed models including FVCOM and SST measurements were carried out to evaluate the efficiency of data assimilation. The comparisons revealed a meaningful improvement in the assimilated simulation of the spatiotemporal SST variability in the whole domain, especially in the shallow parts and near the Hormuz Strait. The root-mean-square error reduced significantly in assimilation run. The statistical comparisons of the results bias denote a positive impact of the data assimilation.

Non-polar compounds of Persian Gulf sea cucumber Holothuria parva selectively induce toxicity on skin mitochondria isolated from animal model of melanoma

Purpose: Melanoma is a highly aggressive and deadly cancer with a poor prognosis given its drug resistance. A defect in apoptosis is one of the key mechanisms that contribute to drug resistance in Melanoma. An important sea marine animal is the Holothuria parva, also known as the sea cucumber, which has various pharmacological activities. Compounds obtained from sea cucumbers have shown to have anticancer activity through induction of apoptosis singling.Materials and methods: In the present study, selective toxicity and apoptotic effect of three extracts of H. parva were assessed on skin mitochondria isolated from mouse animal models of melanoma. The mitochondria was isolated from melanoma cells via differential centrifuges and treated with various concentrations (250, 500 and 1000 µg/ml) of metanolic, diethyl ether and n-hexane extracts of H. parva.Results: All the applied concentrations (250, 500 and 1000 µg/ml) of three extracts of H. parva increased the reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation only in the skin mitochondria isolated from melanoma cells group (in comparison to the control group). Additionally, all three extracts (250, 500 and 1000 µg/ml) induced swelling within the mitochondria, the collapse of the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) and the release of cytochrome c from the mitochondria. Flow-cytometry analysis demonstrated that n-hexane and diethyl ether extracts of H. parva selectively and progressively induced apoptosis only on melanoma but not healthy control skin cells group.Conclusions: Given these results, the potentially bioactive compounds found in H. parva render it a strong candidate for further research in molecular identification and confirmatory in vivo studies. Clinical trials are also warranted in the general process of novel drug discovery for the treatment of melanoma cancer.

Feasibility assessment for installing Sea-wave Slot-cone Generator breakwater in the Iranian coasts of Persian Gulf and Oman Sea

The applicability of Sea-wave Slot-cone Generator breakwater as a system of energy converter in the southern coasts of Iran is investigated. Several efficient factors simultaneously have been considered, including the period and the significant height of wave, the effective depth, and the hydraulic efficiency. The field data used in this study are those derived from the stationary buoys. Findings reveal that Asaluyeh and Shahid-Beheshti ports are the only places, which might satisfy the required needs. The percentage of hydraulic efficiency achieved, however, is less than what is suggested in the literature as the minimum acceptable level. In other words, the use of Sea-wave Slot-cone Generator breakwater is not financially affordable in the southern coasts of Iran.

Molecular identification and phylogenetic relationships of Coleoidea (Mollusca: Cephalopoda) from the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea reveals a case of cryptic diversity

ABSTRACTThe Persian Gulf and Oman Sea constitute one of the most important marine ecosystems and have many economically important aquatic species, including several coleoid cephalopods. Some coleoids are difficult to identify using traditional morphological characteristics. In this study, two mitochondrial fragments, cytochrome oxidase I (COI) and the large ribosomal subunit (16S rRNA), were used for identification of coleoid species in four regions in the northern Persian Gulf and Oman Sea. The study led to the identification of potential cryptic species of Sepia, Amphioctopus and Uroteuthis. Furthermore, Euprymna hyllebergi was reported for the first time from the Persian Gulf. A high diversity of Coeloidea was found in the study area. Mean intraspecific and interspecific nucleotide distances for COI were 0%–2% and 2%–7%, respectively, while these values for 16S rRNA sequences were 0%–1% and 1%–4%. Given the uncertainty about species identity and the high levels of intraspecific genetic diversity reported for some species in GenBank, a comprehensive global study will be needed to resolve the taxonomic status of several coleoid species.