Meeting Abstract

P3.78  Tuesday, Jan. 6  The evolution of coral feeding in the muricid gastropods CLAREMONT, M.*; REID, D.G.; WILLIAMS, S.; Natural History Museum, London and Imperial College London; Natural History Museum, London; Natural History Museum, London m.claremont@nhm.ac.uk

Muricid gastropods in the genus Drupella graze coral polyps and cause damage to coral reefs during population outbreaks. Another well known group of coral-feeding muricids are the Coralliophilinae, ecto- and endoparasites that feed suctorially. The only other report of coral feeding among muricids is of grazing on corals by Ergalatax margariticola. The phylogenetic relationship between Drupella and Ergalatax is unknown, as is their relationship with the Coralliophilinae. We wished to investigate whether the current morphologically-based taxonomy correctly reflects three independent origins of coral feeding behavior in this family. We used four genes (28S, 16S, 12S and COI) to develop a molecular phylogeny of these coral-feeding groups, and also included a range of other muricids. Our results show a sister relationship between Drupella and Ergalatax, whereas coralliophilines are a more distant monophyletic group. This suggests that coral grazing only arose once in the Muricidae, and that parasitism of corals appeared independently.