New records of dactylobiotus parthenogeneticus bertolani, 1982 provide insight into its genetic variability and geographic distribution

Abstract

In sediment samples collected from three distinct European locations (United Kingdom, France, Poland), populations of Dactylobiotus parthenogeneticus were found. The original description of this species was based solely on the morphology observed with light microscopy and later supplemented by some additional SEM data of the buccal apparatus and DNA sequences of 18S rRNA and COI. Here we provide an updated description of the species by means of integrative taxonomy. The description comprises a comprehensive set of morphometric and morphological data from light and scanning microscopy as well as nucleotide sequences of three nuclear (18S rRNA, 28S rRNA, ITS-2) and one mitochondrial (COI) fragments. Our analysis of haplotype diversity confirmed our morphological identification and showed that D. parthenogeneticus is widely distributed in Europe.