title: Resurrection of New Caledonian maskray Neotrygon trigonoides (Myliobatoidei: Dasyatidae) from synonymy with N. kuhlii, based on cytochrome-oxidase I gene sequences and spotting patterns.
abstract: The maskray from New Caledonia, Neotrygon trigonoides Castelnau, 1873, has been recently synonymized with the blue-spotted maskray, N. kuhlii (Müller and Henle, 1841), a species with wide Indo-West Pacific distribution, but the reasons for this are unclear. Blue-spotted maskray specimens were collected from the Indian Ocean (Tanzania, Sumatra) and the Coral Triangle (Indonesia, Taiwan, and West Papua), and N. trigonoides specimens were collected from New Caledonia (Coral-Sea). Their partial COI gene sequences were generated to expand the available DNA-barcode database on this species, which currently comprises homologous sequences from Ningaloo Reef, the Coral Triangle and the Great Barrier Reef (Coral-Sea). Spotting patterns were also compared across regions. Haplotypes from the Coral-Sea formed a haplogroup phylogenetically distinct from all other haplotypes sampled in the Indo-West Pacific. No clear-cut geographic composition relative to DNA-barcodes or spotting patterns was apparent in N. kuhlii samples across the Indian Ocean and the Coral Triangle. The New Caledonian maskray had spotting patterns markedly different from all the other samples. This, added to a substantial level of net nucleotide divergence (2.6%) with typical N. kuhlii justifies considering the New Caledonian maskray as a separate species, for which we propose to resurrect the name Neotrygon trigonoides.
authors.affiliation: Institut de recherche pour le développement, UR 227 Biocomplexité des écosystèmes récifaux, 911, avenue Agropolis, 34394 Montpellier, France. philippe.borsa@ird.fr
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Borsa
authors.forename: Irma S
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Arlyza
authors.forename: Wei-Jen
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jean-Dominique
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Durand
authors.forename: Mark G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Meekan
authors.forename: Kang-Ning
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D003116:Color; D057894:Coral Reefs; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D019156:Indian Ocean; D009510:New Caledonia; D010140:Pacific Ocean; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012860:Skates, Fish / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology*; D009626:Terminology as Topic
chemical_list: D004247:DNA
keywords: Coral Sea; Coral Triangle; Indo-Ouest Pacifique; Indo-West Pacific; Mer de Corail; Molecular systematics; New Caledonia; Nouvelle-Calédonie; Systématique moléculaire; Triangle de Corail