Endemic evolutionary radiation of Rhagada land snails (Pulmonata: Camaenidae) in a continental archipelago in northern Western Australia

In the Dampier Archipelago of Western Australia's Pilbara Region, several locally endemic, morphologically distinctive species of Rhagada land snails occur, contrasting with the morphologically conservative species with wider distributions on the adjacent mainland. To test alternative origins of this unusual local diversity in a continental archipelago, we examined sequences of the cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 and 16S mitochondrial genes in 22 described species and eight undescribed forms, including all known morphospecies from the Pilbara Region's Dampier Archipelago and adjacent mainland. Phylogenetic analyses consistently resolved four, deep clades within the Pilbara Region, with a mean sequence divergence of 15–18%. All but one of the species from the Dampier Archipelago formed one of the major clades, indicating that the morphological radiation in the archipelago evolved locally, rather than through multiple, relictual mainland lineages. Morphological divergence spanning almost that of the entire genus was within a subclade with sequence divergence < 4%, highlighting the disconnection between morphological diversification and levels of molecular genetic divergence. This in situ morphological radiation in the Dampier Archipelago, which transcends variation seen over much larger distances on the mainland, is unusual for a continental archipelago, and may relate to local heterogeneity of land forms. © 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, 106 , 316–327.