<p>This thesis focuses on phylogenetic and taxonomic studies of Catenulida (Platyhelminthes). Catenulida is a group of microscopic free-living worms mainly found in freshwater habitats. The Swedish catenulid fauna was previously virtually unknown. The taxonomy of Catenulida is difficult because of the paucity of good morphological characters, which makes species identification extremely difficult. </p><p>Molecular phylogenies are inferred from DNA sequences. Based on two molecular markers, 18S rDNA and 28S rDNA, the phylogenetic position of Catenulida has now been well established as the sister group to the rest of the flatworms, Rhabditophora. Within Catenulida there is a basal split between two major clades: Retronectidae + Catenulidae and Stenostomidae. The hypothesis of the marine Retronectidae as the sister group of the limnic Catenulida is rejected. </p><p>Four molecular markers, 18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, ITS-5.8S and CO1, are used as a backbone to infer phylogeny and to generate hypotheses about species delimitation in Catenulida using parsimony jackknifing and Bayesian analysis. <i>Anokkostenostomum</i> comes out non-monophyletic, and <i>Suomina</i> nested within <i>Catenula</i>, so two new synonymies are proposed: <i>Stenostomum</i> Schmidt, 1848 (<i>Anokkostenostomum</i> Noreña et al. 2005) and <i>Catenula</i> Duges, 1832 (<i>Suomina</i> Marcus, 1945) are proposed. </p><p>A first report on Swedish freshwater Catenulida are given. A total of 13 species are reported from Sweden. Four of them, all belonging to the taxon <i>Stenostomum</i> are new to science:<i> S. gotlandense</i> n.sp.; <i>S. handoelense</i> n.sp.; <i>S. heebuktense</i> n.sp. and <i>S. steveoi</i> n.sp.</p>

This thesis focuses on phylogenetic and taxonomic studies of Catenulida (Platyhelminthes). Catenulida is a group of microscopic free-living worms mainly found in freshwater habitats. The Swedish catenulid fauna was previously virtually unknown. The taxonomy of Catenulida is difficult because of the paucity of good morphological characters, which makes species identification extremely difficult. Molecular phylogenies are inferred from DNA sequences. Based on two molecular markers, 18S rDNA and 28S rDNA, the phylogenetic position of Catenulida has now been well established as the sister group to the rest of the flatworms, Rhabditophora. Within Catenulida there is a basal split between two major clades: Retronectidae + Catenulidae and Stenostomidae. The hypothesis of the marine Retronectidae as the sister group of the limnic Catenulida is rejected. Four molecular markers, 18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, ITS-5.8S and CO1, are used as a backbone to infer phylogeny and to generate hypotheses about species delimitation in Catenulida using parsimony jackknifing and Bayesian analysis. Anokkostenostomum comes out non-monophyletic, and Suomina nested within Catenula, so two new synonymies are proposed: Stenostomum Schmidt, 1848 (Anokkostenostomum Noreña et al. 2005) and Catenula Duges, 1832 (Suomina Marcus, 1945) are proposed. A first report on Swedish freshwater Catenulida are given. A total of 13 species are reported from Sweden. Four of them, all belonging to the taxon Stenostomum are new to science: S. gotlandense n.sp.; S. handoelense n.sp.; S. heebuktense n.sp. and S. steveoi n.sp.

Parasitic wasps constitute one of the last remaining frontiers in the charting of animal diversity. The Braconidae is the second most species-rich family of parasitic wasps; the world fauna has been estimated at 40 000 species and the Swedish fauna is believed to include a little more than 2 000 species, 1 200 of which are currently documented. This thesis is a contribution to the rapidly increasing knowledge of braconid diversity. In paper I, a new gregarious parasitoid, Meteorus acerbiavorus sp. nov. (Braconidae: Eupohrinae), is described from specimens reared from the cocoons of the butterfly Acerbia alpina (Quensel) (Lepidoptera, Arctiidae) in northwestern Finnish Lapland. Based on a molecular phylogenetic analysis, the new species is shown to belong to the M. rubens species group. In the second paper, the Western Palearctic fauna of the tribe is revised, seven new species are described and a key to the Western Palearctic species is presented. Two molecular markers, 28S and COI, are used to study phylogenetic relationships in the tribe. The molecular results showed that the Meteorini fall into four well supported clades. The results also reveal a considerable cryptic species diversity. The third paper deals with distributional, phenological and in many cases rearing data from nearly 2 500 specimens (44 species) of the Meteorini in the collection of the National Museums of Scotland (NMS), Edinburgh. Patterns in the breadth of host ranges are discussed in relation to a reiterated speciation hypothesis. Paper IV examines the phylogenetic relationships of the entire subfamily Euphorinae based upon four gene regions (18S, CAD, 28S D2, and COI). A revised classification of the Euphorinae is proposed that recognizes 55 genera and 14 tribes. Our study shows that early members of the Euphorinae were parasitoids of coleopteran larvae, with a host shift to larval Lepidoptera, adult or immature hosts in the Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Neuroptera, Orthoptera and Psocoptera. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: In press. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p>

Water frogs are one of the most interesting vertebrate groups, showing great diversity and complexity in their reproductive modes, ecology and evolutionary relationships, and with many cryptic species due to high morphological similarity. For many decades, a single species, Rana ridibunda, has been suggested to exist in Turkey. However, the application of new morphometric, molecular and bioacoustic techniques has recently revealed the occurrence of several distinct water frog taxa in Turkey. In this study, 340 bp long mtDNA ND3 region in 195 specimens was sequenced and subjected to phylogenetic analyses to detect geographical structure and species boundaries. Neighbor joining tree, minimum spanning network, SAMOVA and AMOVA were used to understand relationship within and among clades. Population demography was studied through mismatch distribution and neutrality tests. Results indicated that populations in southwestern Turkey show high diversity and strong geographic structuring. In Turkey there are four major maternal lineages, each probably representing a species: Thrace lineage represents Rana ridibunda Pallas 1771 in European Turkey / Ceyhan lineage indicates an unnamed taxon in Cilicia plain / South-central lineage occurs at the Lake District, Antalya, Konya and Karaman provinces and represents Rana caralitana Arikan, 1988 / Anatoliaca lineage (occuring in Asiatic Turkey except for central southern Turkey, Rhodes &amp / Karpathos, northeastern Syria, and probably also Iraq and Transcaucasia) is designated either as Rana cerigensis Beerli, Hotz, Tunner, Heppich, and Uzzell 1994 or as a new subspecies of R. caralitana, based on the degree of reproductive isolation present between the last two lineages.

The biological diversity on planet Earth is astounding. Understanding the origins of this diversity, and how it is maintained, are the twin goals of ecology and evolutionary biology. An early and oft-repeated insight in this investigation is that that similar organisms cannot coexist indefinitely. Theory predicts that individuals and species will compete for limited resources and whichever has even a slight advantage will drive all others extinct in a process known as ‘competitive exclusion’. By diversifying, species avoid competition, thereby ‘stabilizing’ their coexistence. Yet natural systems often display levels of diversity that are surprisingly high, given this theory and investigations of how the similarity of coexisting species is maintained have received much less attention. Using a combination of field studies and experiments I demonstrate that highly similar species of freshwater amphipods may compete for resources without resulting in competitive exclusion. These findings suggest that there exist a range of interactions among Hyalella amphipods, ranging from strong stabilizing effects due to ecological trade-offs, to weakly stabilizing effects, to a total lack of stabilizing effects among various pairs of species in this system. These findings demonstrate how the relative strength of stabilizing forces may vary among coexisting species. Although much effort has been dedicated to enumerating and classifying the ways in which ecological and evolutionary forces promote diversity among species, there has been far less attention paid to mechanisms such as convergent evolution, habitat filtering, competition for non-substitutable resources, and non-ecological speciation, among others. I surveyed current theory that may explain the high levels of similarity among species often found in natural systems. I describe how several ecological and evolutionary mechanisms may operate to promote the coexistence of similar species and present results from new theoretical combinations of mechanisms to demonstrate how they may further act in concert with one another. / text

The number of non-parasitic (brook) lamprey species in the genus Lampetra is underestimated since isolated populations are generally considered one species due to their relatively conserved body form. The phylogeographic and phylogenetic structure was estimated among and within Lampetra species along the Pacific coast of North America (presumed to represent Lampetra richardsoni; L. pacifica – which is currently regarded as a junior synonym of L. richardsoni; L. ayresii; and L. hubbsi) using up to three mitochondrial and three nuclear genetic markers. These data show that L. richardsoni as currently recognized is polyphyletic when lampreys (some of which show up to 8 K2P% sequence divergence) from Siuslaw River and Fourmile Creek (Oregon) and Mark West, Paynes, and Kelsey creeks (California) are included; Lampetra pacifica is a valid species; the population from Kelsey Creek almost certainly represents a new species; and those from Siuslaw, Fourmile, and Mark West may also be distinct species.

The number of non-parasitic (brook) lamprey species in the genus Lampetra is underestimated since isolated populations are generally considered one species due to their relatively conserved body form. The phylogeographic and phylogenetic structure was estimated among and within Lampetra species along the Pacific coast of North America (presumed to represent Lampetra richardsoni; L. pacifica – which is currently regarded as a junior synonym of L. richardsoni; L. ayresii; and L. hubbsi) using up to three mitochondrial and three nuclear genetic markers. These data show that L. richardsoni as currently recognized is polyphyletic when lampreys (some of which show up to 8 K2P% sequence divergence) from Siuslaw River and Fourmile Creek (Oregon) and Mark West, Paynes, and Kelsey creeks (California) are included; Lampetra pacifica is a valid species; the population from Kelsey Creek almost certainly represents a new species; and those from Siuslaw, Fourmile, and Mark West may also be distinct species.

Dictyostelids (Amoebozoa) are a group of social amoebae consisting of approximately 150 species, which are found in terrestrial habitats worldwide. They are divided into eight major clades based on molecular phylogeny, and within these clades are many species complexes. Some species are seemingly cosmopolitan in distribution, while others are geographically restricted. In this thesis dictyostelids were recovered from high latitude habitats (soils in Sweden and Iceland) as well as from the soles of shoes. Morphological characters and DNA sequence analyses were used to identify isolates that were recovered and delimit new species, as well as to investigate the monophyly of Dictyostelium aureostipes. Nine species were reported from Northern Sweden and four from Iceland. Among the isolates recorded in Sweden were two new species, described as D. barbibulus and Polysphondylium fuscans. P. fuscans was among the four species recovered from footwear, contributing evidence for anthropogenic transport of dictyostelids. Ecological patterns were assessed using linear regression and generalized linear models. The ecological analyses of dictyostelids recovered from Iceland indicate that these organisms are most frequently found in soils of near-neutral pH, but also exhibit a species richness peak in moderately acidic soils. These analyses indicate that in Iceland dictyostelid species richness decreases with altitude, and in the northern hemisphere the species richness increases with decreasing latitude. A three-region analysis of the D. aureostipes species complex indicated that this species is in fact made up of at least five phylogenetically distinct clades, and in light of this the group is in need of taxonomic revision. These results indicate that the dictyostelid species richness is higher than previously known, especially in high-latitude regions, and that even seemingly well-defined species may harbour cryptic diversity. Presently, species ranges may be expanding via anthropogenic dispersal but despite this, the dictyostelids are found to exhibit biogeographic trends well known from macroorganisms, such as a latitudinal gradient of species richness.

Orientador: Sérgio Nascimento Stampar / Resumo: Existe uma considerável abundância de espécies de cnidários no litoral do Brasil e uma das espécies mais intrigantes e pouco conhecidas é a Tamoya haplonema, a qual dentre suas características mais interessantes se destaca a presença de um padrão de bandas nos tentáculos, o que não é comum nos cubozoários, classe à qual pertence. Essa espécie é conhecida desde meados do século XIX, sendo uma das poucas espécies no Atlântico Sul capaz de causar acidentes graves em humanos. Em 2011 alguns registros de espécimes do mesmo gênero para o Mar do Caribe resultaram na descrição de uma nova espécie, Tamoya ohboya. Essa espécie foi delimitada, principalmente, por dados moleculares e devido à disponibilidade de poucos indivíduos a definição é dúbia em vários trechos. Já foi constatado que o cenário taxonômico do gênero Tamoya no Atlântico Ocidental não é consistente. Desta maneira, o principal objetivo deste estudo foi a comparação taxonômica do gênero Tamoya no Atlântico Sul e Mar do Caribe.Para tal, indivíduos do gênero Tamoya do Atlântico Sul foram analisados e comparados com T.ohboya, utilizando dados morfológicos/morfométricos e moleculares, incluindo o estudo da composição dos nematocistos através das medidas e análises comparativas. Os resultados morfológicos, bem como a análise do cnidoma e os resultados moleculares deixam claro que T.haplonema e T.ohboya são na realidade a mesma espécie. / Abstract: There is a considerable abundance of cnidarian species along the Brazilian coast and one of the most intriguing and little known species is the medusa Tamoya haplonema, which among its most interesting characteristics stands out the presence of a pattern of bands in the tentacles, which is not common in the Cubozoa, the class to which it belongs. This species has been known since the mid-nineteenth century, being one of the few species in the Southern Atlantic capable of causing serious stings to humans. In 2011 specimens of the same genus the Caribbean Sea resulting in the description of a new species, Tamoya ohboya. This species was delimited, mainly, by molecular data and due to the availability of few individuals the definition is dubious in several parts. It has already been verified that the taxonomic scenario of the genus Tamoya in the Western Atlantic is not consistent. Thus, the main objective of this study was the taxonomic comparison of the genus Tamoya in the South Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea. Thus individuals of the genus from the South Atlantic were analyzed and compared with T.ohboya, using morphological / morphometric and molecular data, including the study of the nematocysts composition through measurements and comparative analyzes. The morphological results as well as the analysis of the cnidome and molecular results make it clear that T.haplonema and T.ohboya are actually the same species. / Mestre

Este trabalho visou a averiguação do status taxonômico das esponjas bioerosivas do complexo Cliona celata da América do Sul por meio de técnicas moleculares, utilizando como marcadores a subunidade I da Citocromo c oxidase (cox1) e os Espaçadores Internos Transcritos do RNAr nuclear (ITS1 e ITS2), além de testar outros marcadores. Igualmente, avaliou o grau de variabilidade morfológica encontrado nessas espécies, principalmente por meio da morfometria dos tilóstilos, a fim de estabelecer uma diagnose para elas. Ainda, tentou determinar as relações filogenéticas dessas espécies com as demais esponjas bioerosivas utilizando o gene 28S do RNAr nuclear. Foi possível determinar a existência de cinco clados de esponjas bioerosivas do complexo Cliona celata para a América do Sul, e dois outros clados não-sulamericanos, por meio dos marcadores moleculares utilizados. Embora seja discutida a validade desses clados como espécies distintas, continua impossível, por meio de caracteres morfológicos, distingui-los, e dessa forma, a proposição formal de novas espécies é evitada. Através da reconstrução filogenética do grupo, é possível verificar que as esponjas bioerosivas analisadas se apresentaram como um grupo monofilético, e se separa em três principais clados: Pione, Spirastrellidae, e Clionaidae. Por meio desta, é sugerida a alocação das espécies do complexo C. viridis e C. schimidti dentro de Spirastrella, além de ser necessária a criação de um novo gênero para alocar as espécies do novo complexo identificado aqui, o complexo C. delitrix. / This work intended the validation of the taxonomic status of boring sponges from the Cliona celata complex of South America by molecular techniques, using Cytochrome coxidase, subunit I (cox1), and Internal Transcribed Spacers (ITS) of rRNA nuclear genes as molecular markers. Additionally, the degree of morphological variation necessary to establisha correct diagnosis for the studied species was evaluated, and additional markers were tested. Finally, a phylogenetic analysis comparing this species with other boring sponges, using the 28S rRNA nuclear gene was carried out. It was possible to point out the existence of five clades of boring sponges from the C. celata complex in South America, and two more from Mexico and Australia. Although these clades can comprise new valide species, no morphological evidence was found to separate them, and thus, no formal species descriptions were presented. Through out phylogenetic analyses it was possible to conclude that boring sponges form a monophyletic group, which can be separated in three clades: Pione, Spirastrellidae, and Clionaidae. This work suggests to allocate C. viridis and C. schimidti species complexes inside Spirastrella, and to create a new genus for the new C. delitrix species complex.