The Conasprella orbignyi (Gastropoda: Conidae) Complex Revisited: New Species Revealed by Increased Sampling

The genus Conasprella Thiele, 1929 is the second largest in the family Conidae. It encompasses 161 described species that mainly occur at bathyal depths. Despite this relatively high species diversity, species delimitation and taxonomy of the genus have barely been addressed with molecular data. In the present study, we revisit species delimitation in the Indo-Pacific Conasprella orbignyi complex based on data from a previous study and substantial original data. Integrative taxonomy applied to a dataset comprising 82 specimens revealed ten putative species, and available names were assigned to seven of them. Two unnamed species are new and described here as Conasprella zinaidae Fedosov & Puillandre, n. sp. (represented by a single sequenced specimen from Papua New Guinea) and Conasprella emilieae Puillandre & Fedosov, n. sp. (represented by four sequenced specimens, all from Papua New Guinea). Some populations within the Conasprella orbignyi complex show weak genetic structure but unusually high morphological variation, which overlaps differences among genetically distinct species. This variation renders identification of both new species on conchological grounds problematic. Therefore, we provide DNA-based diagnoses for both new species to facilitate their identification in future studies.