Phylogeny of spp. (Decapoda, Pleocyemata) from Peru based on mitochondrial and nuclear data reveals a species complex comprising (Bouvier, 1895) and Holthuis, 1950.

Prawns of the genus represent a highly diverse group of high commercial value worldwide. Eight species have been reported from the Peruvian Pacific slope, but their phylogenetic relationships are still unknown. To investigate the systematics of species from Peru, morphological identification and molecular data from nucleotide sequences of three genes were used: cytochrome oxidase subunit I, 16S rRNA, and 28S rRNA. Based on morphological taxonomy, six species were successfully identified: , , , , , and . However, the phylogenetic inference results supported the species validity of only the first five species; all prawn individuals that were morphologically identified as were recovered within the group, showing interspecific genetic distances near zero, suggesting that both species belong to the same species-level lineage, which may represent in the " species complex". Our analyses also corroborated the genetic proximity of sibling species - and -, and the monophyletic origin of species from Peruvian populations. This study represents the first comprehensive phylogenetic analyses of species from Peru, and contributes the first publicly available DNA sequences for and , as well as the first sequences of , , , and collected from Peruvian rivers.