couperi – an Atlantic lineage, including populations in southeastern Georgia and eastern peninsular Florida, and a Gulf lineage of populations in western and southern peninsular Florida and the Florida panhandle. (2016a), who used DNA sequence analyses to describe two genetic lineages of D. However, this hypothesis was recently challenged by Krysko et al. couperi were developed under the hypothesis that D. couperi remain in large contiguous habitats in southeastern Georgia ( Stevenson et al., 2009 Hyslop et al., 2011 Enge et al., 2013), and throughout peninsular Florida ( Breininger, Legare & Smith, 2004 Enge et al., 2013), but the species was likely extirpated from Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida panhandle ( Enge et al., 2013).Ĭurrent conservation management plans for D. couperi is listed as Threatened under the U.S. couperi populations have declined precipitously over the last century, largely due to habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, and historical over-collecting for the pet trade (U.S. The Eastern Indigo Snake ( Drymarchon couperi Holbrook, 1842) is a large colubrid of the Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States. Indeed, authors have cautioned that studies of species delimitation should be conservative, because “it is better to fail to delimit species than it is to falsely delimit entities that do not represent actual evolutionary lineages” ( Carstens et al., 2013). Therefore, taxonomic division into multiple species should be performed carefully and only when robust evidence supports a decision to revise. When species delimitation methods fail to correctly diagnose individuals ( sensu Ghiselin, 1997), such errors can have significant consequences for conservation and management of imperiled species by reducing or diverting finite conservation resources ( Agapow et al., 2004). For example, species are often delimited into multiple species on the basis of systematic studies utilizing molecular genetic data, thereby requiring adjustment of existing conservation management plans (e.g., Daugherty et al., 1990). We caution against species delimitation exercises when one or few loci are used without evaluation of contemporary gene flow, particularly species with strong sex-biased dispersal (e.g., squamates) and/or when results have implications for ongoing conservation efforts.Īccurate species delimitation and description are critical not only for understanding global patterns of biodiversity, but also to guide effective conservation strategies ( Avise, 1989 Agapow et al., 2004 Mace, 2004 Frankham et al., 2012). We suggest inconsistent patterns between mitochondrial and nuclear DNA may be driven by high dispersal of males relative to females. couperi, and we formally place Drymarchon kolpobasileus into synonymy with D. (2016a, b) regarding species delimitation and taxonomy of D. Our results reject recent conclusions of Krysko et al. (2016a) was based entirely on variance of mitochondrial DNA sequence data, (2) microsatellite data demonstrate significant nuclear gene flow between mitochondrial lineages and a clear isolation-by-distance pattern across the species’ entire range, and (3) morphological analyses recover a single diagnosable species. Our analyses reveal that (1) phylogenetic reconstruction in Krysko et al. Here, we use diverse approaches to test the two-species hypothesis for D. Recently, two associated studies hypothesized that Drymarchon couperi is two species. The Eastern Indigo Snake ( Drymarchon couperi) is a large species in North America that is federally-protected as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Accurate species delimitation and description are necessary to guide effective conservation management of imperiled species.
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