Vol. 62, 2023

(update: 2023.8.24)

Geographic Distribution and Genetic Structures of the Tideland Snails Pirenella nipponica and P. asiatica in Taiwan and Japan

¹Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, the University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8563, Japan. E-mail: kato.shintaro@s.nenv.k.u-tokyo.ac.jp (Kato)
²Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, the University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8564, Japan
³Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, the University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8563, Japan. E-mail: ota.mizuki@s.nenv.k.u-tokyo.ac.jp (Ohta)
⁴Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, the University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8564, Japan
⁵Asamushi Research Center for Marine Biology, Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, 9 Sakamoto, Asamushi, Aomori 089-3501, Japan. E-mail: hiroaki.fukumori.d7@tohoku.ac.jp (Fukumori)
⁶Department of Agriculture, National Taiwan Ocean University, No. 34, Xianglan St., Gongliao, New Taipei 22841, Taiwan. E-mail: realgigi@gmail.com (Hsu)
⁷Institute of Marine Biology & Center of Excellence for the Oceans, National Taiwan Ocean University, 2 Pei Ning Rd., Keelung 20224, Taiwan. E-mail: tychan@mail.ntou.edu.tw (Chan)
⁸Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, the University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8563, Japan. *Correspondence: E-mail: kojima@aori.u-tokyo.ac.jp (Kojima)
⁹Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, the University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8564, Japan

(Received 7 September 2022 / Accepted 22 June 2023 / Published 24 August 2023)
Communicated by Benny K.K. Chan

The tideland snails Pirenella nipponica and Pirenella asiatica are distributed north of the central Ryukyu Islands and in South Ryukyu, respectively, in Japan. To reveal their distribution and genetic characteristics in Taiwan, we sampled Pirenella snails along the western coast of Taiwan Island and analyzed the nucleotide sequences of their mitochondrial DNAs. Pirenella nipponica and P. asiatica inhabit the northern and southern parts of the western coast of Taiwan, respectively, and coexist only in the central part. Taiwanese and Japanese populations of P. asiatica showed significant genetic differentiation. The former showed higher genetic diversity and a larger effective population size than the latter. However, the Taiwanese population of P. nipponica was not genetically deviated from the local Japanese population on Kyushu Island. Both the Taiwan and Kyushu populations of P. nipponica showed significant genetic differences from local populations in other regions of Japan, namely, Honshu Island (the Japanese mainland) and Central Ryukyu. They also showed higher genetic diversity and a larger effective population size than the others. The Taiwanese populations of both species might be part of a large panmictic
population with individuals from the Asian continent and Kyushu Island.

Key words: Tideland snail, Pirenella, Taiwan Island, Nansei Islands, Phylogeography.

Citation: Kato S, Ohta M, Fukumori H, Hsu TH, Chan TY, Kojima S. 2023. Geographic distribution and genetic structures of the tideland snails Pirenella nipponica and P. asiatica in Taiwan and Japan. Zool Stud 62:43. doi:10.6620/ZS.2023.62-43.