Genetic identity of eutetrarhynchids from the Persian Gulf, with intraindividual and intraspecific variability of Prochristianella butlerae Beveridge, 1990.

The examination of the two batoid species, Pastinachus sephen (Forsskål) and Himantura gerrardi (Gray), resulted in a morphologic identification of the five eutetrarhynchid species, namely Parachristianella indonesiensis Palm, 2004 reported for the first time from Himantura gerrardi, Pa. monomegacantha Kruse, 1959, Prochristianella clarkeae Beveridge, 1990, Pr. butlerae Beveridge, 1990 and Dollfusiella spinulifera (Beveridge et Jones, 2000). By sequencing the partial 28S rDNA and calculating the genetic distances between the morphologically identified specimens from the Persian Gulf and their allopatric morphological conspecifics as well as using a phylogeny, the specimens of the Persian Gulf were considered as the allopatric conspecifics of Parachristianella indonesiensis, Pa. monomegacantha and Prochristianella clarkeae. Since the specimens of Dollfusiella from the Persian Gulf and D. spinulifera from Australia had a high genetic distance and placed in two separate clades, the Iranian specimens of Dollfusiella were treated as the cryptic species of D. spinulifera. Following the treatment of Prochristianella macracantha Palm, 2004 as the synonym of Pr. butlerae Beveridge, 1990, it was also expressed that although Pr. butlerae appeared to be a variable species in terms of its metric data, there was an identical oncotaxy in all the conspecifics. A detail examination of the specimens from the Persian Gulf as well as Australian voucher specimens revealed a great intraindividual and intraspecific variability in this species. Since, the sequence information is only available for the Iranian specimens and there is no possibility to evaluate the genetic distance and their monophyly, we consider these two allopatric populations as one species.