Abstract
Abstract
We describe three new species of Cryptogonimidae belonging to two new genera, Caulanus gen. nov. and Latuterus gen. nov., from the large piscivorous reef fish Lutjanus bohar Forsskål, 1775, recovered from Heron and Lizard Islands off the Great Barrier Reef and Rasdhoo Atoll, Maldives. To support our morphologically based taxonomic approach, three nuclear ribosomal DNA regions (28S, ITS1 and ITS2) were sequenced and analysed to explore the geographic distribution and integrity of the putative species recovered from these widespread localities. Sequencing of the rDNA regions included multiple replicates and revealed three distinct genotypes. Two of the observed genotypes were associated with phenotypically similar specimens of Latuterus, but were each restricted to a single locality, Lizard Island, GBR or Rasdhoo Atoll, Maldives. A posteriori analysis of the associated morphotypes revealed distinct morphological differences and these consistent differences, in combination with the consistent genetic differences led to the recognition of two distinct species in the system. Caulanus is distinguished by having oral spines, caeca which open via ani at the posterior end of the body, tandem testes and uterus that extends from the posterior end of the body to the pharynx. Latuterus is distinguished by lacking oral spines, having multiple/follicular testes, a uterus that is extensive in both fore-and hindbody and vitelline follicles which are confined to the region from the pharynx to oral sucker. Caulanus thomasi sp. nov. had identical sequences for all of the rDNA regions examined from specimens recovered from all three localities, indicating that this species has a wide Indo-Pacific distribution. The species reported here are evidently restricted to Lutjanus bohar because they were never found in large numbers of other lutjanid species sampled at the same localities.