earticle

영어

The three known Hynobius species (H. leechii, H. quelpaertensis, and H. yangi) and three new candidate taxa (Hynobius clade1; HC1, Hynobius clade2; HC2, Hynobius clade3; HC3) are distributed in South Korea. Among the candidate taxa, HC2 is distributed in southeastern part of Jeollanam-do. Recent molecular and ecological data presumed that speciation has occurred in this group. Therefore it needs to demonstrate the species identification. We analyzed partial sequence of mitochondrial CO1 gene (1,097 bp) for HC2 using 46 individuals from four different localities. Based on phylogenetic analysis, HC2 was found to be distinct from other Hynobius species. The mean pairwise sequence divergence was 8.3% between HC2 and the other Hynobius species groups in South Korea. With salamanders that have ambiguous morphological characters, it is essential to distinguish the different species using molecular data. According to the pattern of phylogenetic tree composition and relatively large sequence divergence, we highly suggested the candidate taxon of HC2 to be elevated to the status of a new species of H. sp in the genus Hynobius in South Korea.