Diversity, Complementary Distributions And Taxonomy Of Rhagada Land Snails (Gastropoda:Camaenidae) On The Burrup Peninsula, Western Australia

Phylogenetic diversity of Rhagada land snails is high on the Burrup Peninsula, Western Australia, with four distinct clades, representing three of the four major clades of the Pilbara region. Detailed sampling indicated little geographic overlap of the four clades, conforming to the general rarity of congeneric sympatry in Australian camaenids. The diversity on the Burrup Peninsula includes three previously unclassified morphotypes. One of these lies within the broad endemic clade of the adjacent Dampier Archipelago, and is provisionally assigned to the island species R. perprima, based on phylogenetic evidence. The two other undescribed morphotypes constitute an endemic clade that is the sister group of the broader Dampier Archipelago clade. All COI p-distances within clades are less than 6%, whereas nearly all distances between clades exceed 10%, the gap corresponding to differences among species of Rhagada generally. One morphotype in the Burrup Peninsula endemic clade has a low spire and a distinctive keel, and is restricted to a single rockpile. Detailed local sampling revealed gradation between this form and the more widely distributed globose morphotype. On the basis of genetic similarity and morphological continuity, we describe the morphologically variable endemic Burrup Peninsula clade as Rhagada ngurrana, sp. nov., which has a distribution spanning only 9km.