Contributions to Zoology, 87 (3) 149-165 (2018) Molecular and anatomical analyses reveal that Peronia verruculata (Gastropoda: Onchidiidae) is a cryptic species complex Jia Jin Marc Chang1,4, Ywee Chieh Tay2, Hui Ping Ang3, Karenne Phyu Phyu Tun3, Loke Ming Chou2, Rudolf Meier1,2, Danwei Huang1,2 1 Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117558, Singapore 2 Tropical Marine Science Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119227, Singapore 3 National Biodiversity Centre, National Parks Board, Singapore 259569, Singapore 4 E-mail:
[email protected] Keywords: DNA barcoding, cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), cryptic diversity, integrative taxonomy, Singapore Abstract Introduction Recent years have seen an increase in the number of Species delimitation is the sine qua non for biology. studies that use DNA sequence information in addition to After all, what is defined as species often has material morphological methods, as the latter alone can be inadequate for morphologically similar, cryptic species. Marine onchidiid slugs implications on areas such as biodiversity conservation (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Onchidiidae), which commonly inhabit or invasive species management (Mace, 2004; intertidal environments and have a near-global distribution, Armstrong and Ball, 2005; Bickford et al., 2007; comprise 11 genera and 86 described species. Singapore has Hendrixon et al., 2015). Molecular evidence is becoming 19 recorded species of onchidiids with Peronia verruculata more important for taxonomic work (Hajibabaei et (Cuvier, 1830) being the most abundant. Here we present mitochondrial DNA sequence data from 63 P. verruculata- al., 2007; Kress et al., 2015; Meier et al., 2016). The like specimens to show that they constitute two closely-related technique of DNA barcoding, which is predicated on clades with distinct sequence signatures and a clear barcode gap.