Living on the edge: Comparative phylogeography and phylogenetics of Oreohelix land snails at their range edge in Western Canada

Abstract

Background: The biodiversity and distributions of terrestrial snails at local and regional scales are influenced by their low vagility and microhabitat specificity. The accessibility of large-bodied species and their characteristically high levels of genetic polymorphism make them excellent ecological and evolutionary models for studies on the phylogeography, phylogenetics, and conservation of organisms in fragmented populations. This study aims to elucidate the biodiversity, systematics, and distributions of genetic lineages within the genus Oreohelix at the northern and western periphery of their range. Results: We found four mitochondrial clades, three of which are putative subspecies of Oreohelix subrudis. One clade was geographically widespread, occurring within numerous sites in Cypress Hills and in the Rocky Mountains, a second was geographically restricted to the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, and a third was restricted to the Cypress Hills region. A fourth clade was the small-bodied species, O. cooperi. ITS2 sequence and screening data revealed three haplotype clusters, of which one was O. cooperi. Cluster 1 was typical of the first clade and cluster 2 was typical of the second and third clades. ITS2 alleles were shared in a narrow contact zone between the first and second clades, suggestive of hybridization between the two. Conclusions: A sky island known as Cypress Hills, in southeastern Alberta, Canada, is a biodiversity hotspot for terrestrial land snails in the genus Oreohelix. The observed phylogeographic patterns likely reflect reproductive isolation during the Last Glacial Maximum, followed by secondary contact due to passive, long-range dispersal resulting from low vagility, local adaptation, and complex glacial history.

Deep Genetic Divergence Over Small Geographic Scales in Cryptic Allospecies of the Threatened Semperdon Land Snails of Belau (Republic of Palau, Oceania) (Stylommatophora: Charopidae)

“…High inter-and intraspecific mtDNA divergence rates are commonly reported from pulmonate land snails (Thomaz et al, 1996;Davison et al, 2009). This can be especially true for those with geographically fragmented population structures such as cave-obligate species, island endemics, or glacial-relict species (Harl et al, 2014;Gladstone et al, 2019;Dempsey et al, 2020;Bullis & Rundell, 2021;Català et al, 2021;Hwang et al, 2022). Semperdon species appear to exhibit very high COI divergence across very small geographic scales with a mean overall distance of 17%, and maximum interspecific distance of 20.9%.…”