Moina macrocopa (Straus, 1820): a species complex of a common Cladocera, highlighted by morphology and DNA barcodes

Abstract

Moina macrocopa (Straus, 1820): a species complex of a common Cladocera, highlighted by morphology and DNA barcodesFreshwater microcrustaceans are one of the most diverse and understudied groups of the animal kingdom and are best described by the use of an integrative taxonomic approach, including morphological, molecular and geographical data. In this study, we used three different types of characters, including detailed morphological analyses, DNA barcodes (COI gene) and geographical distribution to study the Old-World clade Moina macrocopa (Straus, 1820), here considered as M. macrocopa s.l. and the American clade Moina macrocopa americana Goulden, 1968. Results have indicated that these clades are different species and not subspecies, while Moina macrocopa s.l. is suggested to be species complex with a minimum of three different clades.

Climate change and niche unfilling tend to favor range expansion of Moina macrocopa Straus 1820, a potentially invasive cladoceran in temporary waters

“…Together, the findings above suggest a close link between these records of M. macrocopa , which share environmental niche spaces, corroborating that although closely related, they still may be different taxa. However, apart from the genetic distances between M. macrocopa macrocopa and M. macrocopa americana (Montoliu-Elena et al, 2019 ; Bhanushali et al, 2021 ), the very low overlap also brings cues that might be used to test taxonomic hypothesis regarding M. macrocopa macrocopa solely. In addition, the lack of taxonomical identification keys and genetic characterization for many parts of the world (Goulden, 1968 ) hampers our ability to infer their invasion history accurately.…”

“…We gathered occurrence records from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) ( https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.4u4kmf ) and a literature review in SCOPUS using the following keywords: “ Moina macrocopa ” OR “ Moina macrocopa .” We performed a broad search based on title, abstract, and keywords, with no additional filter on language or document type. Here, we considered as M. macrocopa s.l., excluding the American clade Moina macrocopa americana Goulden, 1968 as recent research has indicated that these clades are different species (Montoliu-Elena et al, 2019 ).…”

“…An observed overlap score that is significantly smaller than one obtained with the null distribution of overlap scores suggests that the species is occupying different environmental spaces in the considered ranges. By doing this, we can investigate the invasion pattern through the niche dynamics and interpret the current knowledge of its genetic comparisons between these areas (Montoliu-Elena et al, 2019 ).…”

“…Also, the two invasive predatory cladocerans Bythotrephes longimanus Leydig, 1860 and Cercopagis pengoi Ostroumov, 1891 recognized as major drivers of biodiversity and economic losses (Jacobs & MacIsaac, 2007 ; Walsh et al, 2016 ). Among cladocerans, Moina has been intensively studied (Neretina et al, 2020 ) regarding taxonomy (Alonso et al, 2019 ), cryptic diversity (Petrusek et al, 2004 ; Bekker et al, 2016 ; Montoliu-Elena et al, 2019 ), and biogeography (Elmoor-Loureiro et al, 2010 ; Farias et al, 2017 ). Moinids have also shown morphological similarities with daphniids (Goulden, 1968 ).…”

Life cycle traits, secondary production and DNA barcode of Oxyurella ciliata Bergamin, 1939 (Crustacea, Branchiopoda, Anomopoda, Chydoridae)

“…Several studies on the molecular biology of zooplanktonic organisms, including cladocerans, have been carried out (Makino et al, 2017(Makino et al, , 2020Moreno et al, 2017;Elías-Gutiérrez et al, 2018;Montoliu-Elena et al, 2019;Abreu et al, 2021). In Brazil, only two studies with COI sequences of the Cladocera species belonging to the Chydoridae family had the life cycle study carried out simultaneously with that of molecular biology, those of Flavalona margipluma (Silva et al, 2014) and Oxyurella longicaudis (Castilho et al, 2015).…”