Artículos de revistas
A comparative study of populations of Ectopleura crocea and Ectopleura ralphi (Hydrozoa, Tubulariidae) from the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean
Fecha
2014Autor
Imazu, Mauricio Antunes
Ale, Ezequiel
Genzano, Gabriel Nestor
Marques, Antonio Carlos
Institución
Resumen
Ectopleura crocea (L. Agassiz, 1862) and Ectopleura ralphi (Bale, 1884) are two of the nominal tubulariid species recorded for the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean (SWAO), presumably with wide but disjunct geographical ranges and similar morphologies. Our goal is to bring together data from morphology, histology, morphometry, cnidome, and molecules (COI and ITS1+5.8S) to assess the taxonomic identity of two populations of these nominal species in the SWAO. We have observed no significant difference or distributional patterns between the so-called Brazilian E. ralphi and Argentine E. crocea
for both morphological and molecular data. Therefore, SWAO populations of Ectopleura belong to the same species.
In a broader view, it is difficult to find decisive character distinguishing E. crocea from E. ralphi, and both species have
indeed recently been synonymized, with the binomen E. crocea having nomenclatural priority. Geographically broader
genetic analysis should be carried out in order to test the validity of this synonymy because taxonomical procedures such
as studying type specimens and documenting broad phenotypic variability have not yet been conducted.