Prosadenoporus mortoni ( Gibson, 1990 ) Maslakova & Norenburg, 2008

Maslakova, Svetlana A. & Norenburg, Jon L., 2008, Revision of the smiling worms, genera Prosadenoporus Bürger, 1890 and Pantinonemertes Moore and Gibson, 1981 and description of a new species Prosadenoporus floridensis sp. nov. (Prosorhochmidae; Hoplonemertea; Nemertea) from Florida and Belize, Journal of Natural History 42 (25 - 26), pp. 1689-1727 : 1717

Prosadenoporus mortoni ( Gibson, 1990) , new combination

( Figure 10A ; Tables 1–4)

Pantinonemertes mortoni ( Gibson 1990; Gibson and Sundberg 1992; Sun 2001)

Etymology

The species is named in honour of Professor Brian Morton, as a tribute to his considerable involvement in furthering the knowledge of the marine flora and fauna of the Hong Kong region.

Type material

Prosadenoporus mortoni ( Gibson, 1990) comb. nov. Sections of the holotype 1987-4- 54 are deposited at the Natural History Museum in London , UK (coll. P. G. Oliver and A. S. Y. Mackie. Starfish Bay , Hong Kong) .

Material examined

Prosadenoporus mortoni ( Gibson, 1990) comb. nov. Holotype 1987-4-54. Additional material coll. by Dr Shichun Sun , Nan Ao Island and Xiamen, Fujian Province, China; sectioned and deposited at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC , USA ( USNM 1020576–1020577 ) .

Diagnosis

Prosadenoporus mortoni comb. nov. does not have any known morphological apomorphies. It differs from all other species of the genus except P. mooreae by having a distinct colour pattern with a greenish-black mid-dorsal longitudinal stripe. P. mortoni shares with P. mooreae the characteristic slender rounded basis of central stylet ( Figure 10A ) and is nearly indistinguishable from it morphologically. The two species represent the closest molecular pair in the genus exhibiting sequence divergence of 2.4% (16S) and 4.1% (COI) ( Tables 1 and 4). Number of accessory stylet pouches unknown. Central stylet (S) 125 mm long, basis (B) rounded 123 mm long, S:B ratio 1.0. Data at hand are insufficient to make the statistical comparisons of stylet metrics with other species.

Habitat and distribution

Under rocks on coarse sand, lower shore; Starfish Bay, Hong Kong; Xiamen and Nan Ao Island, Fujian Province, China.

Remarks

The original description is based on a single specimen from Hong Kong and has no account of the stylet apparatus. Dr Shichun Sun kindly provided three additional specimens collected and identified by him from Fujian Province in China, used here for morphological and molecular comparisons. Dr Sun also provided his sketches of the stylet apparatus, which is very similar to that of Prosadenoporus mooreae comb. nov. (compare Figures 10A and 10B ).

Figures

Figure 10. Central stylets: (A) Prosadenoporus mortoni comb. nov. (a sketch of stylet apparatus provided by Dr Shichun Sun); (B) Prosadenoporus mooreae comb. nov. (specimen from the type locality coll.by SAM); (C) Pantinonemertes californiensis (after Gibson et al. 1982, p.471, fig.3b); (D) Prosadenoporus fujianensis comb. nov. (redrawn from Sun 2001, p.205, fig.23); (E) Prosadenoporus enalios comb. nov. (redrawn from Moore and Gibson 1981, p.183, plate III, fig.c); (F) Prosadenoporus agricola comb. nov. (redrawn from Coe 1904. p.571. plate 23, fig.3); (G–H) Prosadenoporus winsori comb. nov. (specimen from the type locality coll. by SAM); (I) Prosadenoporus floridensis sp. nov. Note: Scales: (A, B, E, F), 100mm; (C, D, G, H, I), 500 mm.