Cheliplana verrucosa Diez, Reygel & Artois, 2019

Gobert, Stefan, Diez, Yander L., Monnens, Marlies, Reygel, Patrick, Van Steenkiste, Niels W. L., Leander, Brian S. & Artois, Tom, 2021, A revision of the genus Cheliplana de Beauchamp, 1927 (Rhabdocoela: Schizorhynchia), with the description of six new species, Zootaxa 4970 (3), pp. 453-494 : 486

Cheliplana verrucosa Diez, Reygel & Artois, 2019

Material examined. None.

Known distribution. Bueycabón, Cuba ( Diez et al. 2019).

Remarks (summarised from literature). Live specimens are pinkish in colour and ~ 0.7 mm long. The epidermis is covered in wart-like glands, except for the caudal 20% of the body. Small, rounded rhabdites are present across the entire body. The proboscis hooks (15–16 μm) are bifurcate at the tip, forming a second, smaller hook of 5–6 μm. The muscular hook supports are 15–17 μm long.

The pharynx measures 1/9 to 1/8 of the total body length and is connected to a spiny, elongated prepharyngeal cavity. The latter is three times longer than the pharynx. The single testis lies ventro-laterally to the pharynx and connects to a single seminal vesicle, which proximally empties into the copulatory bulb. Prostate glands enter the copulatory bulb at approximately the same place. The inverted-pear shaped copulatory bulb (49 µm) comprises the prostate vesicle and a spiny, 28-µm-long, arrow-like cirrus: proximally, the cirrus is 9 µm wide, it narrows to 4 µm at its midpoint, widens again to 12 µm subdistally and finally narrows to a distal, triangular tip. Cirrus spines are largest in the proximal end (7–9 µm) and distally decrease to 4–5 µm.

The vitellarium extends from the pharynx to the copulatory bulb. A single, kidney-shaped ovary and globular bursa are positioned in the caudal body end. Oocytes are organised in a row and proximally decrease in diameter. A connection between the bursa and common atrium is visible.