Molecular phylogeny and a modified approach of character-based barcoding refining the taxonomy of New Caledonian freshwater gastropods (Caenogastropoda, Truncatelloidea, Tateidae).

The islands of New Caledonia represent one of the world's biodiversity hotspots with many endemic species including freshwater gastropods of the family Tateidae. A phylogenetic analysis based on the mitochondrial COI and 16S rRNA and the nuclear ITS2 genes revealed two cryptic genera, Crosseana gen. n. and Novacaledonia gen. n. In order to provide character-based diagnoses we modified a DNA barcoding approach identifying strings of pairwise diagnostic characters, i.e. alignment positions, at which two genera are alternatively fixed for different nucleotides. The combination or string of all pairwise diagnostic characters was unique for each genus. Inconsistent mitochondrial and nuclear topologies suggest that Hemistomia cockerelli Haase and Bouchet, 1998 and H. fabrorum Haase and Bouchet, 1998, two morphologically well-defined species, hybridize. The age of the most recent common ancestor of the New Caledonian radiation of Tateidae was estimated at 24.6±9.5 MY. These findings are in line with the notion that New Caledonia is rather a Darwinian island that was colonized after an extended phase of submergence - in case of the tateids probably from Australia - despite being a fragment of Gondwanaland.