|
Vol. 61, 2022
(update: 2022.11.16)
Special issue: Systematics and Biogeography of Fiddler Crabs (articles 64–71). Editors: Hsi-Te Shih and Benny K. K. Chan
Phylogeographic Structure
within the Fiddler Crabs Leptuca
thayeri and Uca maracoani (Brachyura, Ocypodidae)
along the Tropical West Atlantic
Murilo Zanetti Marochi1,* , Marcelo Marucci Pereira
Tangerina2, Renata de Oliveira Rodrigues1, Claudia Laurenzano3, Wagner Vilegas1, Tânia M. Costa1, and Christoph D. Schubart3
doi:10.6620/ZS.2022.61-67
1UNESP
– São Paulo State University, Coastal Campus, São Vicente – SP, Pça.
Infante Dom Henrique Square, 11330-900, Brazil. *Correspondence:
E-mail: murilo.marochi@gmail.com (Marochi).
E-mail: rodrigues.ro25@gmail.com (de Oliveira Rodrigues);
vilegasw@clp.unesp.br (Vilegas); tania.costa@unesp.br (Costa)
2UNESP
– São Paulo State University, Institute of Chemistry, Campus of
Araraquara, Araraquara – Prof. Francisco Degni Street, 55, 14800-060,
Brazil. E-mail: marcelomptang@gmail.com (Tangerina)
3University
of Regensburg, Zoology and Evolutionary Biology, Regensburg, Germany;
Universitätsstr. 31, 93053. Tel: +49 941 9433304. E-mail:
claudialaurenzano@gmail.com (Laurenzano); christoph.schubart@ur.de
(Schubart)
Received 30 December 2021 / Accepted
17 April 2022
Communicated by Hsi-Te Shih
Most
fiddler crabs have an extended planktonic larval phase, potentially
maintaining gene flow among widely separated populations, in the
absence of marine barriers. Such marine barriers could be long coastal
stretches without suitable habitat, freshwater plumes caused by large
river mouths, or strong currents. Typically, fiddler crabs inhabit
mangrove habitats, and as mangroves tend to have a patchy distribution,
it is important to gather information on the connectivity between
neighboring mangroves and recognize local endemisms. To detect
potential genetic differentiation among mangrove-dwelling populations
of Leptuca thayeri and Uca maracoani
along several thousand kilometers of a tropical coastline, mtDNA
sequences of different populations from Brazil and two Caribbean
islands were analyzed and compared. As shown in previous studies with
fiddler crabs, Brazilian populations are genetically indiscernible, and
our data suggest the absence of long-standing gene flow barriers in the
two studied species along the Brazilian coast. This includes both sides
of the postulated biogeographic barriers corresponding to the
split of the Central South Equatorial Current and to the Amazon River
freshwater plume. In contrast, conspecific individuals from the Greater
Antilles carried different haplotypes, suggesting a biogeographical
barrier between Brazil and the Caribbean, apparently having limited
gene flow between both regions for extended time periods.
Key words: Cox1 mtDNA,
Restricted gene flow, Population genetics, Brazil, Caribbean.
Citation:
Marochi MZ, Tangerina MMP, de Oliveira Rodrigues R, Laurenzano C,
Vilegas W, Costa TM, Schubart CD. 2022. Phylogeographic structure
within the fiddler crabs Leptuca
thayeri and Uca maracoani
(Brachyura, Ocypodidae) along the tropical West Atlantic. Zool Stud 61:67. doi:10.6620/ZS.2022.61-67.
|
