A cryptic radiation of Caribbean sea slugs revealed by integrative analysis: Cyerce ‘antillensis’ (Sacoglossa: Caliphyllidae) is six distinct species

Integrative studies have revealed cryptic radiations in several Caribbean lineages of heterobranch sea slugs, raising questions about the evolutionary mechanisms that promote speciation within the tropical Western Atlantic. Cyerce Bergh 1871 is a genus comprising 12 named species in the family Caliphyllidae, lacking the photosynthetic ability of other sacoglossans but noted for vibrant colors on the large cerata (dorsal leaf-like appendages) that characterize many species. Two species are widely reported from the Caribbean: C. cristallina (Trinchese, 1881) and C. antillensis Engel, 1927. Here, we present an integrative assessment of diversity in Caribbean Cyerce. Four methods of molecular species delimitation supported seven species in samples from the Caribbean and adjacent subtropical Western Atlantic. Six delimited species formed a monophyletic lineage in phylogenetic analyses but were >9% divergent at the barcoding COI locus and could be differentiated using ecological, reproduct..., Specimen collections
Samples comprising 92 specimens were collected from the Caribbean and adjacent subtropical western Atlantic waters. Most specimens were collected by the authors with permission from the State of Florida (FL) under Special Activity Licenses (07SR-1034, SAL-11-1034-SR, SAL-19-1034-SR), or from the host country as needed, including special permission granted to authors by the Autoridad de los Recursos Acuaticos de Panama (ARAP 27-2015 and ANAM SE/A-64-15), and from the Dept. of Fisheries of the Bahamas to Joseph R. Pawlik and participants of research cruises in 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2010. Exceptions were specimens collected from Lauderdale by the Sea, FL (by A. Dimitris); Summerland Key, FL (by Y. Gryzmbowski); and Dominica (by D. Willette). Some Caribbean specimens were identified as C. cf. cristallina based on their distinctive external morphology, but no Mediterranean samples were available for comparison; all other Caribbean samples were provisionally identified as ..., All data files can be viewed with a standard text editor.
\"DNA alignments\" are text files in Phylip format used as inputs by the program RaxML, as specified in the README file.
see: https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btu033
\"Arlequin input files\" are input files for the program Arlequin, as specified in the README file.
see: http://cmpg.unibe.ch/software/arlequin35/
\"Popart input files\" are input files for the program Popart, as specified in the README file.
see: http://popart.otago.ac.nz, # Data files supporting \"A cryptic radiation of Caribbean sea slugs: integrative analysis indicates Cyerce ‘antillensis’

(Sacoglossa: Caliphyllidae) is six species.\" Moreno, K., Rico, D.M., Middlebrooks, M., Medrano, S., Valdés, Á.A., and P.J. Krug.
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, in press (2022).

## Description of the data and file structure

DNA alignments
A) Phylip file used for RaxML analysis of concatenated three-gene dataset (Cyerce_3gene_alignment_12_12_21.nex)
B) Partitioning scheme used in RaxML analysis of concatenated three-gene dataset
C) Phylip file used for analyses of COI dataset (Cyerce_COI.nex)
D) Partitioning scheme used in RaxML analysis of COI dataset

Arlequin input files
E) Arlequin input file for population genetic analyses of COI dataset for Cyerce antillensis,
using 655-bp haplotypes (Arlequin input 2021 C_antillensis.ARP)
F) Arlequin input file for population genetic analyses of COI dataset for Cyerce nicholasi,
using 658-bp haplotypes edited to al...