First description of deep-sea polyclad flatworms from the North Pacific: Anocellidus n. gen. profundus n. sp. (Anocellidae, n. fam.) and Oligocladus voightae n. sp. (Euryleptidae)

Abstract

Two deep-sea polyclad species are described. Both species were found in association with wood-boring bivalves on oak and fir wood blocks that had been deployed on heavy sediment in the Cascadia Basin and Escanaba Trough in the North Pacific Ocean. Anocellidus profundus n. gen. n. sp. warrants erection of Anocellidae, n. fam. because of the unique position and orientation of the male copulatory apparatus. A. profundus lacks eyes but has long, nuchal tentacles and a ventral, arrowhead-shaped organ of putative sensory function. The male copulatory apparatus is located posterior to the male gonopore and is directed anteriorly. Highly muscularized spermiducal bulbs are present, a prostatic vesicle is lacking. A large Lang’s vesicle characterizes the female reproductive system. Oligocladus voightae n. sp. is defined by the presence of a mouth located anterior to the brain. Few and minute tentacular eyes are present. The seminal vesicle is connected to an auxiliary sperm storage vesicle, and a posterior anal pore is present in the main median branch of the intestine. All type material is deposited at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Five new species of cotylean flatworms (Platyhelminthes: Polycladida) from the wider Caribbean

“…Polyclad flatworms are almost exclusively marine and have been recorded from tropical, temperate and even arctic waters (Prudhoe 1989). They also are known from the deep-sea (Quiroga et al 2006). Due to a focused and long-term sampling effort, some of the highest diversity of polyclads (more than 600 species) has been recorded from the Great Barrier Reef and the Indo-Pacific (see extensive references in Newman & Cannon 2003).…”

Taxonomy of Cotylea (Platyhelminthes: Polycladida) from Cabo Frio, southeastern Brazil, with the description of a new species

“…Free-living platyhelminths of the order Polycladida inhabit several marine environments, ranging from coral reefs and rocky shores to soft bottoms in all oceans (Newman & Cannon 2003;Quiroga et al 2004a). There are also reported deep-water species (Quiroga et al 2006(Quiroga et al , 2008. The main characteristic of this group of Platyhelminthes is the simple and dorsoventrally flattened body, with a much ramified intestine.…”

A new polyclad species associated withBankia martensi(Bivalvia) from the South Pacific coast of Chile, and its taxonomic position within Euplanidae (Platyhelminthes, Ilyplanoidea)

“…Aprostatum longipenis , Euplanoida concolor and E. pardalis were excluded from analysis, because no complete information of these three species was available. In the absence of molecular and/or morphological phylogenetic analyses at the family level, six representative species of different families within Ilyplanoidea Faubel, 1984 were selected as outgroups (Anocellidae, Anocellidus profundus Quiroga, Bolaños & Litvaitis, 2006; Discoprosthididae, Discoprosthides patagoniensis Faubel, 1983; Ilyplanidae, Ilyella gigas (Schmarda, 1859) of uncertain position according to Doignon et al (2003), Euilyoida malagasensis (Doignon, Artois & Deheyn, 2003) and Postenterogonia orbicularis (Schmarda, 1859); and Mucroplanidae, Mucroplana caelata Sopott-Ehlers & Schmidt, 1975).…”

“…For all taxa considered we coded 26 morphological characters (Table 1). Information about character states of the new species and of T. teredini was obtained from the specimens studied here; that of the remaining species was obtained from the literature (Plehn, 1896; Laidlaw, 1903a, b; Bock, 1913; Hyman, 1939, 1941, 1944, 1953, 1954, 1955; Marcus, 1947, 1954; Sopott-Ehlers & Schmidt, 1975; Faubel, 1983; Doignon et al , 2003; Quiroga et al , 2006; Faubel et al , 2007; Holleman, 2007). Missing data were coded as ‘?’, inapplicable character states as ‘–’, and characters with multiple states in brackets (Table 2).…”