2022/03/10 by Koh Siang Tan, Samuel Hui Ming Tan, Kitithorn Sanpanich +2 · 8 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Biology #Bivalvia #Clade #Ecology #Genus #Intertidal zone #Marine Biology and Ecology Research #Marine Bivalve and Aquaculture Studies #Marine and coastal plant biology #Mollusca #Mytilidae #Phylogenetics #Taxonomy (biology) #Zoology
paper · doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlac031
published in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 196(1), 316-345 (Oxford University Press)
openalex publication_date 2022/03/10 · openalex created_date 2022/05/05 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
Abstract The presence of small black mussels in the upper intertidal zone of estuarine seashores in Southeast Asia is often overlooked, despite their numerical dominance. Here, we clarify their species identities, taxonomy, geographical distributions and genetic relationships. Our molecular results suggest that three closely related species in East and Southeast Asia form a sister clade to Australian and New Zealand Xenostrobus. Given their distinctness, we resurrect the genus Vignadula to distinguish these two clades. Vignadula atrata, first described from Japan and type species of the genus, is confined to north-east Asia, whilst two other Vignadula species occur natively in Southeast Asia. Of these two species, one is found throughout Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Java. We show that this species corresponds to Xenostrobus balani and Xenostrobus mangle described from the Malacca Strait, which are genetically indistinguishable and here considered as one and the same species, Vignadula mangle comb. nov. The other species, Vignadula kuraburiensis sp. nov., described in this study, has so far been found only in south-west Thailand. Members of Vignadula are, in turn, all clearly different from their closest morphological equivalent in Australia, Xenostrobus pulex. A new subfamily Xenostrobinae is proposed to accommodate the two genera Xenostrobus and Vignadula.