ZOOSYSTEMATICS AND EVOLUTION, cilt.100, sa.3, ss.989-1004, 2024 (SCI-Expanded)
A new amphipod species belonging to the genus Gammarus was identified in the rivers of the Eastern Black Sea Region of Türkiye:
G. sezgini sp. nov. The authors described the new species using a taxonomic approach that combines morphological and molecular
data. The newly identified species belongs to the G. komareki species complex because of the setation of antenna 2, pereopods 3
and 4, and the uropod 3. Some of its characteristic features are as follows: A medium-large species (holotype male, 9.8 mm). The
body is yellowish; no dorsal keel or hump; eyes well developed, kidney-shaped; extremities not elongated; the second antenna bears
numerous groups of long setae on the peduncle and flagellar segments; antennal gland cone long, not curved; the posterior margin of
pereopod 3 is densely setose; the setae on the posterior edge of pereopod 4 are shorter and fewer in number; the anterior margins of
pereopods 5 to 7 bear spines in the male; epimeral plates are not pointed. The newly identified species looks similar to G. komareki
but differs from it by having a longer antennal gland cone, having fewer D-setae (33) in the third segment of the mandible palp,
having shorter setae on the ventral part of the peduncular segment of the antenna 2, and having longer antenna 1, having fewer
setae along the posterior margins of pereopods 3 and 4, and the absence of setae along the anterior margins of merus and carpus of
pereopod 7. The new species is distinct from its relatives by high genetic distance (COI: 17.10% and 28S: 0.88%) and was resolved
from them as an independent lineage with high support (ML: 78%, NJ: 70%, and BI: 1.0) in all phylogenetic results, based on the
concatenated dataset (28S+COI). Additionally, species delimitation analyses (ASAP and PTP) based on the COI gene supported the
conclusion that the new species constitutes an independent lineage. Detailed descriptions and drawings of the male holotype and the
female allotype are given, and the morphology of the newly identified species is compared with that of its relatives.