Taxonomic Review of the Australian Rossiinae (Cephalopoda: Sepiolidae), with a Description of a new Species, Neorossia Leptodons, and Redescription of N. Caroli (Joubin, 1902)

Geographical variation in the morphological characters of Australian Rossiinae were examined using principal component analysis (PCA), multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), discriminant function analysis (DFA), analysis of variance (ANOVA) and latitudinal and longitudinal regression analyses. The results show that morphological differences occur between populations of Rossia from the North West Shelf (W.A.) and populations from eastern and southern Australia. Evidence from these analyses suggest that these two populations are genetically distinct, the North West Shelf specimens belonging to a possible new species, described as R. sp. 1, the eastern and southern Australian specimens identified as R. australis Berry, 1918 and redescribed on the basis of new material. That all the latter specimens belong to a single species is further supported by electrophoretic evidence. A new species of Neorossia, N. leptodons, is identified and described, differing from the only described representative of this genus, N. caroli (Joubin, 1902), in the shape of the radular teeth. The two species were also shown to differ using multivariate statistical techniques. N. caroli is redescribed from the holotype and additional material. In addition, specimens of Neorossia from southeastern Australia are compared electrophoretically with R. australis. It was found that members of these two genera differed for 66% of loci.