Chordodes aquaeductus Kirjanova 1950

Villalobos, Cristina De, Zanca, Fernanda & Spiridonov, Sergei, 2007, Fine morphology of the cuticle surface of Chordodes anthophorus and reinterpretation of C. aquaeductus, C. ferganensis and C. oscillatus (Gordiida Nematomorpha), Zootaxa 1397, pp. 39-45 : 43

[ Chordodes aquaeductus Kirjanova 1950 ]

( Figure 3 B)

1950. Chordodes aquaeductus. Kirjanova Trud. Zool. Inst. Akad. Nauk SSSR 9: 260.

Series Types: 2 males and 1 female (ZIS 90)

Type locality: Tajikistan, Pendzhikent

Material examined: 1 male

Host: unknown.

Description The cuticle of the only male specimen from the type series of C. aquaeductus ( Fig. 3 B) shows four areolar types: simple areoles, tubercle areoles and crowned areoles that form clusters together with circumcluster areoles. Crowned areoles occur in pair and have moderately short filaments on top. Circumcluster areoles carry a ring of short filaments at the apex ( Fig. 3 B). This cuticular pattern shows the same characteristics that were observed in Chordodes anthophorus .

Dimensions: Males vary between 270 and 297 mm in length and are maximally 1.5 mm in diameter; the female is 315 mm in length and 2 mm in diameter (Kirjanova 1950).

Comments: Gordiida specimens (ZIS 90) from Tajikistan, Pendzhikent, were described by Kirjanova (1950) as Chordodes aquaeductus with 5 types of areoles. Although Kirjanova (1950) considers C. aquaeductus as very similar to C. anthophorus she notes differences has fewer areolar types, because C. aquaeductus has the areolar groups formed by more areoles, less quantity of areolar types and a bigger body size than C. anthophorus . The differences between C. aquaeducus and C. anthophorus mentioned by Kirjanova (1950) are difficult to sustain because the body size is too variable in the specimens within the same species (Schmidt­ Rhaesa 1997), the quantity of areoles forming the areolar groups is also variable within the same specimen (de Villalobos et al. 2004). As we previously pointed out, it is usual that two areolar groups arranged very close to each other give the appearance of one group with many areoles. No characteristics separate this species from Chordodes anthophorus . Therefore, we regard Chordodes aquaeductus as a synonym of Chordodes anthophorus .

Figures

FIGURE 3. Cuticle of the midbody: (A) specimen labelled as “ Chordodes moutoni ” (ZIS 97); (B) [Chordodes aquaeductus] (ZIS 90); (C and D) [Chordodes ferganensis] (ZIS 100); (C) Cuticle of the body with simple, tubercle, crowned and circumcluster areoles (numbering as in Fig. 1 B), (D) Cluster of crowned areoles with long filaments (5) along the ventral midline; (E and F) [Chordodes oscillatus] (ZIS 102), midbody cuticle showing four areolar types with the same characteristics of Chordodes anthophorus. Bars: (A and C): 20 µm; (B, and F): 20 µm; (D): 50 µm; (E): 10 µm.