Addressing knowledge gaps in the systematics of temperate south-east Australian deep-sea Raphitomidae (Caenogastropoda: Conoidea): integrative taxonomy of species of less diverse and taxonomically problematic genera

The conoidean family Raphitomidae is arguably one of the most diverse groups of deep-sea gastropods. A previous molecular phylogenetic study, based on material from bathyal and abyssal waters of temperate south-eastern Australia and aiming to define the taxonomic boundaries of several genera, distinguished a total of 54 primary species hypotheses (PSHs) in the region. Although many of these have been fully taxonomically investigated, several others await taxonomic characterisation. Focussing on samples of those remaining putative taxa, this study subjected a comprehensive mitochondrial DNA dataset of representative deep-sea raphitomids to the species delimitation method ABGD, which recognised 14 PSHs from Australian waters. Following additional evaluation of shell and radular features, as well as examination of geographic and bathymetric ranges, 13 of these were converted to secondary species hypotheses (SSHs). Three SSHs were described as new and tentatively assigned to the genera Eubela Dall, 1889, Pleurotomella Verril, 1872 and Xanthodaphne Powell, 1942. The remaining 10 were assigned to named species, for which additional anatomical and radular data were also provided. Although some of the species studied appear to be comparatively rare and no inference is made about their geographic and bathymetric distributions, others exhibit transoceanic ranges or occupy remarkably wide depth intervals. ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:531B6770-279D-488C-9D81-A06E07D12C79.