Chordodes ruandensis Sciacchitano, 1937

Zanca, F., Villalobos, C. De & Schmidt-Rhaesa, A., 2006, Revision of the genus Chordodes (Gordiida, Nematomorpha) from Africa-I. Ultrastructural redescription of Chordodes gariazzi Camerano, 1902, C. heinzei Sciacchitano, 1937, C. kolensis Sciacchitano, 1933, C. muelleri Sciacchitano, 1937, and C. ruandensis Sciacchitano, 1937, Journal of Natural History 40 (1 - 2), pp. 17-31 : 28-29

Chordodes ruandensis Sciacchitano, 1937

( Figure 5 )

Chordodes ruandensis Sciacchitano 1937, p 141 , Figure 1 .

Holotype: ♀ ( AMT 1427 ).

Type locality

Republic of Rwanda, Gabiro. Coll. Verhulst, 1934 ( Sciacchitano 1937).

Material examined

Holotype, SEM from midbody; LM from posterior end.

Host

Unknown.

Description

The body length is 348 mm, diameter in the middle region is 1 mm. The body colour is dark brown. Anterior end without white cap. The posterior end is round with a terminal cloacal opening ( Figure 5A ).

The cuticle contains three types of areole distributed all over the cuticle. There are numerous simple areoles with varying shape. They are rounded or oval. The surface of these areoles is rough and carries on top small bristles ( Figure 5B ). Among the simple areoles are clusters of crowned and circumcluster areoles. Crowned areoles carry long filaments (43.7 mm) on their apical surface and are surrounded by 16–19 circumcluster areoles. These are conical and with a ring of short bristles at the apex. In the interareolar furrow there are scarce high tubercles (20 mm) with rounded apex ( Figure 5B ).

Comments

Sciacchitano (1937) described C. ruandensis from a female specimen but later ( Sciacchitano 1958) referred to this specimen as a male. Taking into account that the measurements of this specimen, the collection date, and the collector’s name correspond, it is assumed that Sciacchitano (1958) is a repetition of Sciacchitano’s (1937) report. Our reinvestigation confirms that the holotype of C. ruandensis is a female (see Figure 5A ). Sciacchitano (1937) described the cuticle of C. ruandensis with three areolar types, but the figure given is insufficient to distinguish the types properly from each other. Crowned areoles are not among the areoles described. Sciacchitano (1958) redescribed the cuticle, describing and producing figures of simple areoles and crowned areoles. Among the simple areoles, he distinguished a light and a dark type. From the SEM investigation, we cannot distinguish two types of simple areoles. The crowned areoles are clustered with circumcluster areoles. Therefore, although all three descriptions of C. ruandensis ( Sciacchitano 1937, 1958; this investigation) count three types of areole, these types only correspond to each other in part.

Figures

Figure 1. Chordodes gariazzi, SEM. (A) Ventral view of male posterior end with cloacal opening (c), arrow indicates position of the bristlefields; (B) general view of the midbody cuticle with simple (1), bulging (2), tubercle (3), crowned (4), and circumcluster areoles (5); (C) cuticle of the lateral side of the body with simple, bulging, and tubercle areoles (numbering as in B); (D) tubercle areole and areolar cluster of crowned and circumcluster areoles. Scale bars: 100 mm (A); 25 mm (B, C); 10 mm (D).

Figure 5. Chordodes ruandensis, female. (A) Stereomicroscope, posterior end with terminal cloacal opening (arrow); (B, C) SEM: (B) cuticle of the lateral side of the body with simple areoles; (C) cuticle with crowned (2) and circumcluster (3) areoles. Scale bars: 16.6 mm (A); 10 mm (B, C).