Study on Leptoconchus species (Gastropoda, Coralliophilidae) infesting Fungiidae (Anthozoa : Scleractinia). 1. Presence of nine Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) based on anatomical and ecological characters

• This paper deals with the Leptoconchus infesting Fungiidae. A dichotomous key based on five characters, and sustained by a multivariate analysis (canonical discriminant analysis) based on I I characters allows clear separation into nine Leptoconchus Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs). The nine OTUs are provisionally labelled OTU1, OTU2,..., OTU9. A single Leptoconchus OTU infests several fungiid species whereas a single fungiid species is never infested by different Leptoconchus OTUs. Some Leptoconchus OTUs infest closely related coral species, whereas other infest distantly related species.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Ekologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Ecology (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

leptoconchus

fungiidae

taxonomy

coral host specificity

corals

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)