A Preliminary Phylogenetic Analysis ofLuidia （Paxillosida： Luidiidae） from Chinese Waters with Cytochrome Oxidase Subunit I （COI） Sequences

Luidia Forbes （Paxillosida： Luidiidae） are common soft bottom sea stars with 49 described species. Because of substan- tial morphological diversity, the taxonomy of the genus is complex and hasn＇t been resolved definitely. In order to resolve general taxonomic issues, and determine species boundaries and phylogenetic relationships within the genus Luidia, the sequences of tyro- chrome oxidase subunit I （COI） gene from 24 specimens of Luidia, belonging to eight taxa in Chinese waters, were studied. Three sequences of two species in genus Luidia from GenBank were used to analyze the phylogenetie relationships. The molecular phy- logeny exhibited three main clades, each with strong bootstrap support： Clade A including Luidia quinaria from the Sea of Japan; Clade B including seven nominal species （L. quinaria von Martens, L. yesoensis Goto, L. ehangi Liu, Liao and Li, L. orientalis Fisher, L. avicularia Fisher, L. longispina Sladen and L. hardwicki Gray） from Chinese waters; and Clade C including L. maculata Miiller ＆ Troschel from Chinese waters. Our molecular phylogeny results support the morphological Quinaria-Group and Alter- nata-Group assigned by D6derlein. Seven nominal species we sampled do not exhibit genetic distances that are large enough to rec- ognize them as separate species. Cryptic species may exist in ＇Luidia quinaria＇ from the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan. Meaning- ful morphological characters need further investigation in Luidia.