'Fake widespread species': a new mangrove Thinophilus Wahlberg (Diptera, Dolichopodidae) from Bohol, Philippines, that is cryptic with a Singaporean species
Ramos, K.; Ang, Y.; Grootaert, P. (2020). 'Fake widespread species': a new mangrove Thinophilus Wahlberg (Diptera, Dolichopodidae) from Bohol, Philippines, that is cryptic with a Singaporean species. Raffles Bull. Zool. 68: 441-447. https://hdl.handle.net/10.26107/RBZ-2020-0060
In: The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. National University of Singapore: Singapore. ISSN 0217-2445
We here show an example of how a supposed ‘wide-spread’ species can actually be revealed as a ‘long distance’ cryptic species complex. During a recent survey of the insect fauna of the mangroves of the San Vicente Mangrove Forest Association (SAVIMA) in Bohol, Philippines, many specimens of Dolichopodidae were collected. They were pre-sorted into putative species (3% threshold) using COI sequences obtained via next-generation sequencing (NGS barcodes: 313 bp). The sequences were then compared to a database of sequences including more than 20,000 Southeast Asian dolichopodid specimens belonging to more than 300 species. The morphology for one such Boholano putative species cluster was superficially indistinguishable from and initially identified as Thinophilus comatus Grootaert, 2018, described and only known from the mangroves of Singapore. However, the 4.6% divergence in sequences between the Singaporean and Boholano specimens prompted a morphological reexamination which revealed minute differences in the male terminalia. The cryptic species from the Philippines is described and illustrated here as Thinophilus reizlae, new species.
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