Redescriptions of Eunice filamentosa and E. denticulata and description of E. tovarae n. sp. (Polychaeta: Eunicidae), highlighted with morphological and molecular data

Abstract

In a series of studies on eunicids, three Grand Caribbean species Eunice filamentosa, E. denticulata, and E. conglomerans were regarded as synonyms, or part of a species complex with an amphiamerican distribution. The revision of type and additional materials collected in the Grand Caribbean Region (GCR) and along the Mexican Pacific coasts, allowed us to clarify that E. conglomerans is a junior synonym of E. denticulata. Thus, E. filamentosa and E. denticulata are valid species in the GCR; while the specimens from the Tropical Eastern Pacific belong to a newly described species, E. tovarae n.sp. Herein we describe these three species, and some morphological features described in previous studies are reevaluated. Additionally, we found an important genetic divergence in nucleotide sequence variation of COI, which supported the morphological data. E. filamentosa and E. denticulata have a genetic divergence of 19.6%; whereas E. tovarae n. sp. has a genetic divergence of 20.7% from E. denticulata, and a 12.9% divergence from E. filamentosa.