Meeting Abstract
P1.21 Sunday, Jan. 4 Taxonomy and Phylogeography of Hippocampus kuda in Hawaii KIMOKEO, Bethany K.*; SZABO, Zoltan; SAARMAN, Norah P.; SIMISON, W. Brian; MARTIN-SMITH, Keith; BARROWS, Abby; BAINE, Mark; LOURIE, Sara; TOONEN, Robert J.; HAMILTON, Healy; University of Hawaii, Manoa bkimokeo@hawaii.edu
The spotted seahorse Hippocampus kuda is widely considered a species complex with poor taxonomic resolution. In addition to the biological importance, the entire genus of Hippocampus is listed on CITES Appendix II, so it is crucial that species are indentified accurately when enacting conservational regulations. Preliminary molecular and morphological data from throughout the range do not support the conclusion that H. kuda is a complex, but rather a single morphologically variable species with a deep evolutionary history. In Hawaii, as with other populations throughout the Pacific, there is debate on the taxonomy of H. kuda, with a range of opinions being expressed from recent aquarium introduction to distinct species. The purpose of this study was to determine if populations of H. kuda in Hawaii are in fact an endemic or not and if not to generate hypotheses for the source and timing of Hawaiian colonization. Seventeen H. kuda seahorses were gathered from sites around the island of Oahu, Hawaii and sampled by removing tiny portions of skin from the tail. DNA was extracted and mitochondrial Cytochrome b and 16S genes were sequenced to reveal that, unlike any other location sampled to date, all 17 seahorses were of the identical haplotype. Haplotype diversity (h) of H. kuda throughout the Indo-Pacific excluding Hawaii averaged 0.72 compared to a haplotype diversity of 0.0 in Hawaii. Based on a range-wide survey, the Hawaiian haplotype appears unique to Hawaii, but well within the H. kuda lineage, and is one mutation removed from a common haplotype found in Japan and the Phillipines. These data indicate that the spotted seahorse in Hawaii is H. kuda but we cannot infer the age or origin of colonization with these data.
