Phenetic Relationship Study of Gold Ring Cowry, Cypraea Annulus (Gastropods: Cypraeidae) in Mollucas Islands Based on Shell Morphological

This study aims to construct taxonomic character of Cypraea annulus based on shell morphological; analyzed the developmental stages of the snail shell and investigated the similarities and phenotypic distances of snails with numerical taxonomic approaches. This research lasted four years on island of Larat and Ambon. The sample used was 2926. Construction of morphological taxonomic characters using binary data types with 296 test characters and ordinal types with 173 test characters; and 32 specimens of operational taxonomic units. The data is processed and analyzed on Lasboratory of Maritime and Marine Study Centre, University of Pattimura. The results of this study indicate that the development stages of C. annulus shell: juvenile stage (11.00-14.99 mm), sub adult (15.00-18.99 mm), adult (19.00-22.99 mm) and post adult (>23.00 mm). The distribution of similarity coefficient and phenetic distance values between 32 OTU C. annulus has a morphological phenetic similarity in the range of values above 95% and the phenetic distance in the range of less than 1.0. C. annulus numerical taxonomic based on morphological taxonomic character with 296 characters of test at binary data type, obtained two taxa phenotypes at a taxonomic phenon similarity level of 94%; Whereas with 173 character test of ordinal data type, obtained three taxa phenotype at taxonomic correlation level 0.970.