The conspecificity of Pterosiphonia spinifera and P. arenosa (Rhodomelaceae, Ceramiales) inferred from morphological and molecular analyses

The genus Pterosiphonia includes twenty-one currently described species of red algae that occur in temperate to tropical regions of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Pterosiphonia spinifera was originally described as Polysiphonia spinifera from Peru and later transferred to Pterosiphonia. Pterosiphonia spinifera has been reported from Peru as Pterosiphonia pennata, which was originally described from the Mediterranean Sea. Recently, Pterosiphonia arenosa was described based on specimens of P. pennata from Korea. We collected P. spinifera along the coast of Peru and P. arenosa near the type locality in Korea. We compared them with the isotype specimens of P. arenosa using both morphological and molecular data. Our morphological observations and our phylogenetic analysis of rbcL sequences demonstrate that P. spinifera and P. arenosa are conspecific and indicate that P. arenosa is a later synonym of P. spinifera. Our study confirms the wide occurrence of P. spinifera in the western and eastern Pacific Ocean.