Taxonomy and molecular phylogeny analysis of the genus Diogenes “Edwardsii group” (Decapoda: Anomora: Diogenidae) based on mitochondrial DNA sequences

Abstract

Many variations of morphological characters differ from one species to another, showing high interspecific variation within the genus Diogenes Dana, 1851. Subtle morphological differences among certain species make it difficult to identify diagnostic characters. Although the genus is very speciose, the study on the molecular is poorly reported. This study aimed to evaluate the taxonomy and phylogeny of the genus Diogenes using morphological and molecular features. The molecular phylogeny of 15 species of Diogenes included in the "Edwardsii group" was constructed based on two mitochondrial genes COI and 16S rRNA. The results of the phylogeny tree construction based on concatenated mitochondrial genes COI and 16S rRNA mtDNA formed 5 clades of monophyletic. Phylogenetic relationships of Diogenes species based on concatenated mitochondrial genes COI and 16S rRNA sequenced suggest that the morphological and molecular analyses of the species in this study corroborated one another. Among 15 species studied, three species were challenging to identify due to their resemblance to other species traits. The phylogenetic tree demonstrates that the three taxa denoted by 'sp.' were different from the known species of Diogenes so far. Diogenes sp.1 was closely related to Diogenes moosai Rahayu & Forest, 1995, Diogenes sp.2 resembles Diogenes laevicarpus Rahayu, 1996, while Diogenes sp.3 was closely related to Diogenes goniochirus Forest, 1956.