SCIENTIA MARINA 80(4) December 2016, 521-533, Barcelona (Spain) ISSN-L: 0214-8358 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3989/scimar.04422.12A Cryptic diversity in Mediterranean gastropods of the genus Aplus (Neogastropoda: Buccinidae) Chrifa Aissaoui 1,4, Nicolas Puillandre 2, Philippe Bouchet 1, Giulia Fassio 3, Maria Vittoria Modica 3, Marco Oliverio 3 1 Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité ISYEB - UMR 7205 – CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, EPHE, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, 55 rue Buffon, F-75231, Paris, France. 2 Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité ISYEB - UMR 7205 – CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, EPHE, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, 43 rue Cuvier, F-75231, Paris, France. 3 Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie “Charles Darwin”, ‘Sapienza’ Università di Roma, Viale dell’Università 32, I-00185 Roma, Italy. E-mail:
[email protected] 4 Université de Carthage, Faculté des Sciences de Bizerte, Laboratoire de Biosurveillance de l’Environnement (Unité. Hydrobiologie littorale et limnique), 7021 Jarzouna, Tunisie. Summary: Northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean gastropods previously ascribed to the buccinid genus Pollia Gray, 1837 are more correctly classified in the genus Aplus de Gregorio, 1885. Using an integrative taxonomy approach combining mo- lecular, morphological and geographic data, we revisit the limits of the extant species in the area, and propose a molecular phylogenetic hypothesis based on 66 specimens from various localities in the Mediterranean Sea, including type localities of some nominal taxa. We used a preliminary morphological inspection, followed by a DNA-barcoding approach to propose species hypotheses, subsequently consolidated using additional data (phylogenetic, geographic and refined morphological data). Seven species hypotheses were eventually retained within our molecularly assayed samples, versus three classical morphologically recognized species.