Integrated taxonomy reveals new threatened freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Hyriidae: Westralunio) from southwestern Australia

Abstract

The freshwater mussel Westralunio carteri (Iredale, 1934) has long been considered the sole Westralunio species in Australia, limited to the Southwest and listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List and under Australian legislation. Here, we used species delimitation models based on COI mtDNA sequences to confirm existence of three evolutionarily significant units (ESUs) within this taxon and conducted morphometric analyses to investigate whether shell shape differed significantly among these ESUs. “W. carteri” I was found to be significantly larger and more elongated than “W. carteri” II and “W. carteri” II + III combined, but not different from “W. carteri” III alone. We recognise and redescribe “W. carteri” I as Westralunio carteri (Iredale, 1934) from western coastal drainages and describe “W. carteri” II and “W. carteri” III as Westralunio inbisi sp. nov. from southern and lower southwestern drainages. Two subspecies are further delineated: “W. carteri” II is formally described as Westralunio inbisi inbisi subsp. nov. from southern coastal drainages, and “W. carteri” III as Westralunio inbisi meridiemus subsp. nov. from the southwestern corner. Because this study profoundly compresses the range of Westralunio carteri northward and introduces additional southern and southwestern taxa with restricted distributions, new threatened species nominations are necessary.

A multidisciplinary approach unveils the distribution of the Alpine long-eared bat Plecotus macrobullaris in Italy

“…Misidenti cations of cryptic species, i.e., those biological entities that are hard or impossible to distinguish based on phenotype (Chenuil et al 2019), represent a challenge to conservationists, since they may lead to biased estimations of species distributions, and to unsuitable and limited conservation actions to protect them (Klunzinger et al 2022; Marrone et al 2022). Molecular investigations have allowed the identi cation of a high number of cryptic species, improving biogeographical knowledge and conservation planning (Piggott and Taylor 2003;Galimberti et al 2015;Devitt et al 2019), as well as increasingly becoming routinary tools for species identi cation.…”

Comparative diversity in glochidia of Australasian freshwater mussels

“…This study incorporates published information, together with new observations from recent acquisitions of glochidia, to describe and illustrate behavioural, morphological and morphometrical data for a total of 17 species of Australasian Hyriidae from 24 localities of Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea, supplemented with a provisional dichotomous key for their identification. Marshall et al, 2014;Walker et al, 2014;Klunzinger et al, 2022;Ponder et al, 2023) are provided in Supplementary Figure S1. Taxonomy follows Walker et al (2014), Marshall et al (2014), Klunzinger et al (2022), Ponder et al (2023) and Graf and Cummings (2023).…”

“…Marshall et al, 2014;Walker et al, 2014;Klunzinger et al, 2022;Ponder et al, 2023) are provided in Supplementary Figure S1. Taxonomy follows Walker et al (2014), Marshall et al (2014), Klunzinger et al (2022), Ponder et al (2023) and Graf and Cummings (2023). Live samples of adult mussels of Cucumerunio novaehollandiae (Gray, 1843), Hyridella australis (Lamarck, 1819), Hyridella drapeta (Iredale, 1934), Hyridella glenelgensis (Dennant, 1898), Hyridella narracanensis (Cotton and Gabriel, 1932), and Velesunio angasi (Sowerby II, 1867) were hand-collected from multiple localities at varying times of the year; known times of brooding were gleaned from a combination of unpublished field observations and literature (Humphrey and Simpson, 1985;Jones et al, 1986;Playford and Walker, 2008;Jones, 2014;Treby, 2016).…”