Host specificity and phylogenetic relationships among Atlantic Ovulidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda)

Ovulid gastropods and their octocoral hosts were collected along the leeward coast of Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles. New molecular data of Caribbean and a single Atlantic species were combined with comparable data of Indo-Pacific Ovulidae and a single East-Pacific species from GenBank. Based on two DNA markers, viz. CO-I and 16S, the phylogenetic relationships among all ovulid species of which these data are available are reconstructed. The provisional results suggest a dichotomy between the Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific taxa. Fully grown Simnialena uniplicata closely resembles juvenile Cyphoma gibbosum conchologically. Cymbovula acicularis and C. bahamaensis might be synonyms. The assignments of Caribbean host species for Cyphoma gibbosum, C. signatum, Cymbovula acicularis and Simnialena uniplicata are revised.