Research Article |
Corresponding author: Wei-Chun Li ( weichunlee@126.com ) Academic editor: Stefano Taiti
© 2021 Xue-Gang Zeng, Jin Wang, Jingbo Yang, Wei-Chun Li.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Zeng X-G, Wang J, Yang J, Li W-C (2021) Integrative taxonomy reveals a new species of the genus Burmoniscus (Isopoda, Philosciidae) from the Xuefeng Mountains, China. ZooKeys 1055: 123-134. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1055.66879
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Three species of the genus Burmoniscus are identified from the Xuefeng Mountains, central China, by integrating morphological and molecular approaches. Burmoniscus chuanyanensis Li, sp. nov. is described. Morphological photographs of the new species are provided.
Molecular, morphology, new species, Oniscidea
The genus Burmoniscus was erected by
Prior to this study, 21 Burmoniscus species have been recorded from China (
In general, the taxonomy of terrestrial isopods using multiple methods has proved to be an efficient strategy in delimiting species (
Specimens were collected by hand with tweezers, fixed in absolute ethanol, and stored at −20 °C in a freezer. The appendages were dissected and mounted on micro-preparations in neutral balsam mounting medium. Photographs were taken with a digital camera Zeiss AxioCam Icc 5 attached to a digital microscope Zeiss Stereo Discovery V12. The line drawings were drawn by the GNU Image Manipulation Program (
Genomic DNA was extracted from pereonites of the samples (Table
Species | DNA number | Locality | Accession number |
---|---|---|---|
B. chuanyanensis Li, sp. nov. | CYS2007 | China, Hunan, Chuanyanshan | LC617864 |
CYS2008 | China, Hunan, Chuanyanshan | LC617865 | |
CYS2009 | China, Hunan, Chuanyanshan | LC617866 | |
CYS2010 | China, Hunan, Chuanyanshan | LC617867 | |
CYS2011 | China, Hunan, Chuanyanshan | LC617868 | |
B. kathmandius Schmalfuss, 1983 | LCS2022 | China, Hunan, Lingcuishan | LC617869 |
LCS2023 | China, Hunan, Lingcuishan | LC617870 | |
LCS2024 | China, Hunan, Lingcuishan | LC617871 | |
LCS2027 | China, Hunan, Lingcuishan | LC617872 | |
Japan, Okinoerabujima | LC075193 | ||
B. mauritiensis (Taiti & Ferrara, 1983) | LCS2028 | China, Hunan, Lingcuishan | LC617873 |
LCS2029 | China, Hunan, Lingcuishan | LC617874 | |
B. dasystylus Nunomura, 2003 | Japan, Wakayama, Shirahama | AB626154 | |
Ligidium ryukyuense Nunomura, 1983 | Japan, Amami-Oshima | AB626261 | |
Ligia exotica Roux, 1828 | China, Guangxi, Beihai | KC762932 |
A total of 11 mitochondrial COI sequences were obtained. In addition, two Burmoniscus sequences and another two sequences representing the outgroups were downloaded from NCBI for phylogenetic analysis (Table
All results are based on the pairwise analysis of the 15 sequences (Table
Pairwise genetic divergence (K2P-distance) among Burmoniscus species (bold) and the outgroup using COI gene sequences.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 B. mauritiensis | 0.195 | ||||
2 B. dasystylus | 0.096 | ||||
3 B. kathmandius | 0.270 | 0.297 | 0.014 | ||
4 B. chuanyanensis | 0.249 | 0.258 | 0.237 | 0.002 | |
5 Ligia exotica | 0.335 | 0.358 | 0.382 | 0.336 | |
6 Ligidium ryukyuense | 0.303 | 0.318 | 0.301 | 0.298 | 0.334 |
Holotype. China, male, Hunan Province, Xuefeng Mountains, Chuanyanshan National Forest Park (27°42'N, 110°34'E), alt. 391 m, 14 July 2019, Wei-Chun Li and Jing-Bo Yang leg., Prep. slide no. L2007–2009, DNA no. CYS2007–2011.
Paratypes. One male, 23 females, same collection data as holotype.
Male pleopod 1 endopodite with distal portion bearing bilobated apical tip with one subapical spine-like projection between lobes.
Body length of male 7.5 mm, of females 3.5–9.0 mm. Body elliptic. Color brown with pale muscle spots on dorsal surface in preserved specimens with ethanol (Fig.
Antennule. Composed of three articles, distal article bearing apical set of small aesthetasc (Fig.
Pereopods
(Fig.
Pleopods, sexual differentiation. Male pleopod 1 exopodite heart-shaped, outer margin sinuous, inner margin broadly rounded, distal portion triangular bearing one row of small setae on inner margin (Fig.
The new species is named after the national forest park where the type specimens were collected.
Rennelloscia mauritiensis Taiti & Ferrara, 1983: 203, fig. 2.
Burmoniscus mauritiensis
(Taiti & Ferrara, 1983):
Three males, seven females, China, Hunan Province, Xuefeng Mountains, Lingcuishan Park (27°54'N, 110°34'E), 15 July 2019, alt. 214 m, Wei-Chun Li and Jing-Bo Yang leg., slide prep. no. L2016–2018, DNA no. LCS2028–2029; 13 males, 85 females, China, Jiangxi Province, Nanchang County, Liantang (28°33'N, 115°56'E), 3 January 2012, Wei-Chun Li leg., slide prep. no. L17225–17230.
China (Guangxi, Hong Kong, Hunan, Jiangxi, Nanjing, Sichuan); Hawaiian Islands; Korea; Mauritius.
In the examined specimens of this species, the body length of males were 4.0–7.0 mm, and of females 4.5–7.0 mm. Taiti and Ferrara (1983) have adequately described and illustrated this species. By morphology, it is easily distinguished by the unique characters of the male pleopod 1 endopodite, which is distinctively bent outwards near the apical area and densely covered with denticles (see Taiti and Ferrara 1983: fig. 2). Furthermore, the morphological characters of this species are identical to those of B. dasystylus Nunomura, 2003 (see also
Rennelloscia kathmandia Schmalfuss, 1983: 379, figs 5, 6, 9, 22, 23. Type locality: Nepal, Kathmandu-Balaju.
Burmoniscus kathmandius
(Schmalfuss, 1983):
Burmoniscus aokii
(Nunomura, 1986):
Burmoniscus boninensis
(Nunomura, 1986):
Burmoniscus daitoensis
(Nunomura, 1986):
Burmoniscus hachijoensis
Nunomura, 2007: 25, fig. 5;
Burmoniscus japonicus
(Nunomura, 1986):
Burmoniscus kagoshimaensis
Nunomura, 2003a: 31, fig. 4;
Burmoniscus murotoensis
(Nunomura, 1986):
Burmoniscus okinawaensis
(Nunomura, 1986):
Burmoniscus shibatai
(Nunomura, 1986):
Burmoniscus tanabensis
Nunomura, 2003b: 16, fig. 3;
Burmoniscus watanabei (Nunomura, 1986): Karasawa, 2016: 1, figs 3J, 5K, 6J, 7, 8K, 10–14K, 16, 17J (junior synonym of B. kathmandius).
Seven males, 59 females, China, Hunan Province, Xuefeng Mountains, Lingcuishan Park (27°54'N 110°34'E), 15 July 2019, alt. 214 m, slide prep. no. L2013–2015, DNA no. LCS2022–2024 and LCS2027.
China (Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Hunan, Taiwan); Japan; Nepal; Hawaiian Islands.
This species has the body length of males 3.5–5.0 mm, and of females 4.5–7.5 mm.
In the original species descriptions, the male pleopod 1 generally provides the most significant diagnostic character, especially the apical portion of the endopodite, which shows a considerable difference in shape among the species. However, it is difficult to distinguish the interspecific morphological differences and intraspecific morphological variations in the closely related congeners. Thus, the assistance of the other methods is necessary to solve morphological problems (
We are grateful to Dr Shigenori Karasawa (Tottori University, Japan), Dr Stefano Taiti (Istituto per lo Studio degli Ecosistemi, Italy), Dr Noboru Nunomura (Kanazawa University, Japan), and Dr Do Heon Kwon (Inje University, Korea) for providing important references and generous help. Special thanks are given to two anonymous reviewers for their insightful suggestions on the manuscript. This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 31960100).