Phaenocora salinarum subsalsa Beklemischev, 1927

Houben, Albrecht M., Steenkiste, Niels Van & Artois, Tom J., 2014, Revision of Phaenocora Ehrenberg, 1836 (Rhabditophora, Typhloplanidae, Phaenocorinae) with the description of two new species, Zootaxa 3889 (3), pp. 301-354 : 348

Phaenocora salinarum subsalsa Beklemischev, 1927

Phaenocora salinarum subsalsa Beklemischev 1927: 178 , 193–194, 199, 205, Fig. 1 ; Gilbert 1935: 285, 352, 365, table 2. Phaenocora subsalsa Gilbert 1937: 67 ; Gilbert 1938a: 205; Marcus 1946: 72.

Known distribution: Odessa ( Ukraine) ( Beklemischev 1927).

According to Beklemischev (1927), the animals are about 2 mm long, with black, cup-shaped eyes. Dermal pigmentation is absent, dermal rhabdites are present. Beklemischev’s (1927) textfigure 1 (probably) shows an evaginated copulatory organ that possibly could be placed under the duplex-type IA. This would only be true if indeed the male genital canal as described by Beklemischev (1927) is in fact the everted portion of the copulatory organ. This assumption could also explain why Gilbert (1935) could not imagine how exactly the ductus ejaculatorius evaginates. The female genital system was never described. Phaenocora salinarum subsalsa has been described as a subspecies of the poorly-described P. salinarum . Therefore new material and further investigation are needed to see whether it is in fact a Phaenocora .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Photographs of live animals A, P. evelinae. B, P. foliacea from South Africa. C, P. foliacea from India. D, P. aglobulata sp. nov.. E – H, P. gilberti sp. nov.: E – F, pigmentation of the head. G, male copulatory organ. H, female genital canal.