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Vol. 59, 2020
(update: 2020.10.15; 11.12)
Molecular Approach to the
Identification of Three Closely Related Slugs Deroceras Species (Gastropoda:
Eupulmonata: Agriolimacidae)
Kamila
S. Zając1,* and Daniel Stec2
doi:10.6620/ZS.2020.59-55
1Institute
of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Jagiellonian University,
Gronostajowa 7, 30-387 Kraków, Poland. *Correspondence:
kamila.zajac12@gmail.com
2Institute of Zoology and Biomedical Research, Faculty
of Biology, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 9, 30-387 Kraków,
Poland. E-mail: daniel_stec@interia.eu (Stec)
Received 27 July 2020 / Accepted 6
September 2020
Communicated by Benny K.K. Chan
Some
species of slugs belonging to the genus Deroceras are invasive and
cause severe agricultural damage. Despite extensive knowledge about
their invasiveness, data on the molecular differentiation of these
morphologically similar species are lacking. Here we present a
molecular approach to identifying three closely related species of the
genus Deroceras—D. agreste
(L., 1758), D. reticulatum
(O. F. Müller, 1774) and D. turcicum
(Simroth, 1894) (Gastropoda: Eupulmonata: Agriolimacidae)—based on
sequences of multiple molecular markers: cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI), cytochrome b (cyt-b), internal transcribed
spacer 2 (ITS-2) and 28S ribosomal RNA (28S rRNA). We also provide
detailed photomicrographs of the penis and penial gland of the three
species, as it is the latter that holds the most important phenotypic
characters for distinguishing between these taxa. Since identification
of the studied species based solely on morphology is considered
challenging, contributing a means of molecular differentiation will aid
further ecological and biodiversity surveys of these important pests.
Key words: Taxonomy, Deroceras, Barcoding, Gastropods,
Slugs.
Citation: Zając KS, Stec D. 2020.
Molecular approach to identifying three closely related slug species of
the genus Deroceras
(Gastropoda: Eupulmonata: Agriolimacidae). Zool Stud 59:55. doi:10.6620/ZS.2020.59-55.
Supplementary
Materials: Table
S1 | Table S2 | Table S3 | Table S4
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