Contributions to the knowledge of marine heterobranch sea slugs (mollusca gastropoda)Panama biodiversity and cryptic species

Resumen

The biodiversity of a country is part of its natural wealth and the study of it is fundamental for a scientific researcher, such is the case of the Panamanian marine coasts in which there has not been an exhaustive taxonomic description of the Panamanian species of sea slugs. heterobranch recorded by different authors. Here in the first chapter we try to describe the biodiversity of Panamanian sea slugs by providing descriptions of all sea slugs from the coasts of Panama, based on published references and confirmed photographs of all species collected in Panamanian coastal waters; complementing the available information, with specimens collected by us in different Panamanian coastal areas. In a second chapter we cover what happens when climate change and some human activities intervene that contribute to the dispersal of species considered exotic from tropical waters to semi-temperate waters, such as Bursatella leachii. As its introduction into Mediterranean waters has not been well established for this species, we have carried out a molecular analysis study of the populations of this species found on Catalonian coasts to determine the origin of the Mediterranean populations and determine whether the wide Atlantic Ocean is a barrier. natural for this type of species. Furthermore, in a third chapter we compiled the records of Berthella stellata on the Catalan coast and did a study over time of a permanent population of B. stellata in the town of Es Caials (Costa Brava, NE Spain). For this, we collected and photographed live specimens and studied details of their morphology, their radula and jaws, as well as molecular data to compare them with GenBank data from other specimens from different parts of the world, in order to determine to which regions, the Catalan populations of B. stellata. Ending with a fourth chapter where we compare the small red specimens of the Aplysia genus previously considered as Aplysia parvula, with the larger Aplysia punctata. These specimens of A. punctata that inhabit the Catalonian coast show two different color patterns, which are believed to represent two different species. As we do not know why the color change, we set ourselves the goal of knowing what this color change is due to. of the A. punctata. Obtaining in the first chapter a resulting catalog for the coasts of Panama of 233 species, of which 118 are found on the Caribbean coast, 127 on the Pacific coast, eight on both coasts and eighteen Amphi-Atlantic; results that confirm the high biodiversity of heterobranch sea slugs in the Panamanian coasts. In the second chapter we obtained that the haplotypes of B. leachii from the Catalonian coasts are the same as those of the populations of the American Atlantic and Africa, and that the first colonizers of B. leachii possibly entered through the Strait of Gibraltar for those from the Atlantic; concluding that the wide Atlantic Ocean is not a natural barrier. In the third chapter we find that the population of B. stellata from Es Caials shares both morphological and molecular aspects with specimens from the Northeast Atlantic and the Mediterranean in Europe and we conclude with the results of the fourth chapter in which we confirm that the small red specimens of A. punctata feed on red algae, mainly Sphaerococcus coronopifolius and Plocamium cartilagineum; that they give it a morphological appearance very similar to the adults of A. parvula and that the adults of A. punctata feed preferentially on the green algae Ulva lactuca where it hides and escapes from predators. Which led us to conclude that this change in feeding behavior is probably related to defensive camouflage strategies.