New records of the endemic Sicilian land snail species Marmorana (Murella) muralis (O. F. Müller, 1774) from the north of Tunisia (Pulmonata, Gastropoda)

ZooKeys, Jul 2018

Marmorana (Murella) muralis is known as an endemic species of Sicily Island, which is introduced in many European countries. Here, M. (M.) muralis is recorded from the north of Tunisia. In order to confirm the identification of samples collected from several localities, shell morphology, details of genital organs and two mitochondrial markers (COI and 16S) were investigated. The results of the molecular study, as well as the morphological and anatomical studies confirm the identification of all Tunisian samples as M. (M.) muralis. The analysis of mitochondrial markers shows a low divergence between Sicilian and Tunisian samples suggesting a recent introduction of M. (M.) muralis to the North of Tunisia. The comparison of morphological characters of M. (M.) muralis with shell characters of Murella nicollei described by Pallary (1926) confirms that the latter should be considered as synonym of M. (M.) muralis.

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New records of the endemic Sicilian land snail species Marmorana (Murella) muralis (O. F. Müller, 1774) from the north of Tunisia (Pulmonata, Gastropoda)

ZooKeys New records of the endemic Sicilian land snail species Marmorana (Murella) muralis (O. F. Müller, 1774) from the north of Tunisia (Pulmonata, Gastropoda) Issaad Kawther Ezzine 0 Najet Dimassi 0 Beat Pfarrer Khaled Said 0 Eike Neubert 0 Laboratoire de génétique, biodiversité et valorisation des bio-ressources, Institut Supérieur de Biotechnologie de Monastir , Avenue Taher Hadded (B.P 74) Monastir 5000, Tunisia 2 Natural History Museum Bern, Bernastr. 15, CH-3005 Bern , Switzerland 3 Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern , CH-3012 Bern , Switzerland Marmorana (Murella) muralis is known as an endemic species of Sicily Island, which is introduced in many European countries. Here, M. (M.) muralis is recorded from the north of Tunisia. In order to confirm the identification of samples collected from several localities, shell morphology, details of genital organs and two mitochondrial markers (COI and 16S) were investigated. The results of the molecular study, as well as the morphological and anatomical studies confirm the identification of all Tunisian samples as M. (M.) muralis. The analysis of mitochondrial markers shows a low divergence between Sicilian and Tunisian samples suggesting a recent introduction of M. (M.) muralis to the North of Tunisia. The comparison of morphological characters of M. (M.) muralis with shell characters of Murella nicollei described by Pallary (1926) confirms that the latter should be considered as synonym of M. (M.) muralis. eol>16S; COI; anatomy; Marmorana (Murella) muralis morphology; Murella nicollei; Sicily; Tunisia - Résumé Marmorana (Murella) muralis est connue comme une espèce endémique de l’île de Sicile qui est actuellement introduite dans plusieurs pays européens. Dans la présente étude, nous enregistrons, la présence de M. (M.) muralis dans différentes localités du Nord de la Tunisie. Dans le but de valider l’authenticité des spécimens collectés de différentes localités, la morphologie de la coquille, l’anatomie de l’appareil génital ainsi que deux marqueurs mitochondriaux (COI et 16S) ont été analysés. Les résultats de l’étude moléculaire ainsi que ceux de l’étude morphologique et anatomique confirment qu’il s’agit bien de l’espèce Sicilienne M. (M.) muralis. L’analyse des deux marqueurs mitochondriaux montre une faible divergence entre les populations Sicilienne et Tunisienne suggérant ainsi une récente introduction de cette espèce en Tunisie. La comparaison des critères morphologiques de l’espèce M. (M.) muralis avec les critères de la coquille de l’espèce Murella nicollei décrite par Pallary (1926) confirme que cette dernière doit être considérée comme synonyme de l’espèce M. (M.) muralis. Mots clés 16S, COI, anatomie, Marmorana (Murella) muralis, morphologie, Murella nicollei, Sicile, Tunisie Introduction Land snails compose a group of invertebrates which are characterized by low mobility and dispersal capacity. The evolution of morphological characters within land snail species is widely influenced by the environmental and ecological conditions. Marmorana (Murella) muralis is an endemic helicid species from Sicily Island, which is characterized by an extremely high variability of shell morphology as well as molecular characters (Fiorentino et al. 2013) . It was demonstrated that paleogeographical factors and environmental changes affected the shell morphology of M. (M.) muralis in Sicily (Fiorentino et al. 2013) . This species was introduced by humans to many other European areas such as Tuscany in Italy, Sardinia, the Baleares, Portugal and Bouchesdu-Rhône in France. Tunisia is a quite well sampled area as evidenced by Letourneux and Bourguignat (1887) , who documented land snails from a plethora of localities. Interestingly, they never recorded the presence of Marmorana (Murella) Pfeiffer, 1877 in the area. It was Pallary in 1926, who was the first to describe a Murella, Murella nicollei, from Tabarka in northwest Tunisia. Recent sampling efforts by the senior author revealed the presence of a Marmorana (Murella) taxon at several localities in the north of Tunisia. The present study aims to 1) identify the samples collected from Tunisia based on morphological and molecular characters, 2) determine the possible origin of each Tunisian population known and 3) clarify the status of Murella nicollei Pallary, 1926. Materials and methods Living specimens were collected by hand at several localities in Tunisia during two periods: spring 2014, and winter 2015/2016. Geographic coordinates were recorded using a GPS device. For subsequent molecular analyses, specimens were preserved and stored in 80% ethanol until dissection and DNA extraction. Morphological and anatomical studies First assessments of the shell morphological characters were done by using simple magnifying glasses. Preserved animals were dissected under a LEICA M212 stereo microscope using thin tweezers. The genital organs of the specimens were removed fr (...truncated)


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Issaad Kawther Ezzine, Najet Dimassi, Beat Pfarrer, Khaled Said, Eike Neubert. New records of the endemic Sicilian land snail species Marmorana (Murella) muralis (O. F. Müller, 1774) from the north of Tunisia (Pulmonata, Gastropoda), ZooKeys, 2018, pp. 131-147, Issue 775, DOI: doi:10.3897/zookeys.775.25740