Taxonomy and Phylogeny of Asian Parabathynellidae: with a description of the 21 new species from East Asia

Abstract

This study deals with the taxonomy and phylogeny of Asian parabathynellids except Indian ones. In total, 21 new species are described and a known species is redescribed. 14 new species and the known species, Allobathynella coreana Morimoto, 1970 belong to Allobathynella Morimoto & Miura, 1957, five other new species to Abeobathynella gen. nov. and remaining two new species to Nipponbathynella Schminke, 1970. Based on the description, 63 characters are selected to perform a phylogenetic analysis, of which aim is to test the validity of genera and to define the range of individual supraspecific taxa. The result yields 13 most parsimonious trees. The consensus tree of them indicates that most genera recognized within (South-) East Asia are well established. However, the range of Eobathynella Birstein & Ljovuschkin, 1964, Allobathynella Morimoro & Miura, 1957 and Sketinella Camacho, 2006 is redefined and Issykkulibathynella Serban, 1994 is rejected. By the way, the redefinition of Eobathynella lead an erection of new genus, Abeobathynella gen. nov., which includes five new species described in this study.