Abrochtha sonneborni, Jr & Ricci & Melone & Fontaneto, 2011

Jr, C. William Birky, Ricci, Claudia, Melone, Giulio & Fontaneto, Diego, 2011, Integrating DNA and morphological taxonomy to describe diversity in poorly studied microscopic animals: new species of the genus Abrochtha Bryce, 1910 (Rotifera: Bdelloidea: Philodinavidae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 161 (4), pp. 723-734 : 730-731

ABROCHTHA SONNEBORNI SP. NOV.

Type material: Holotype deposited in the Academy of Natural Sciences , Philadelphia, accession number 2072; DNA sequence GenBank GU989443 . The specimen was isolated from the clonal lab culture obtained from one single individual named Bird 3.X, collected by C. W. B. from the type locality on 26 July 2005.

in the median part, where the apophyses are connected. Each uncus plate consists of two to three small minor teeth in the proximal part, 4/5 to 5/6 major teeth, and 12 to 15 distal minor teeth.

Measurements: Total length, 170–260 Mm; trunk length, 100–170 Mm; trunk width, 30–50 Mm; head width, 30–45 Mm; foot, 25–40 Mm. Trophi, ramus length from SEM, 19.38 ± 0.66 (SD) Mm (N = 14).

Type locality: Bird bath at 2641 N. Tomas Road, Tucson, Arizona, USA, altitude 652 m, 32°15 ′ 21.2 ′′ N, 111°2 ′ 36.7 ′′ W .

Etymology: The new species is dedicated to the memory of Tracy Morton Sonneborn for his pioneering studies of the genetics of the ciliate Paramecium , including the discovery of cryptic biological species and a systematic revision of the genus. In addition to his work on Paramecium , he mentored two PhD students who did their thesis research on rotifers, one of whom is the first author of this paper.

Differential diagnosis: A higher number of major teeth and a lower number of minor teeth on the unci plate together with a wider rami apophysis are the only morphological features to discriminate this species from the previous ones. Rami are also longer in this species.

General morphology: The external morphology ( Fig. 5B ) completely overlaps with A. meselsoni and A. kingi . Refer to the previous descriptions for its morphological features. No SEM pictures are available for this species.

The trophi of A. sonneborni are similar to those of A. meselsoni and A. kingi in morphology. Nevertheless, some clear differences are present ( Fig. 7 ); the apophyses of the rami are less strong and much wider Distribution and ecology: This new species is known only from the type locality, a ceramic bird bath c. 0.05 m deep and 0.4 m diameter, intermittently filled with water, in the Sonoran Desert. It is an artificial analogue of temporary rock pools in the same region.

DNA barcoding: The partial DNA sequence of the COI gene of animals collected from the laboratory culture of clone Bird3/X has been deposited in GenBank with accession number GU989443 . Additional partial COI sequences from other specimens collected in the wild in the type locality, named Bird2.4 and Bird3.2, have been deposited in GenBank under accession numbers GU989441 and GU989442 , respectively .

Figures

Figure 5. A, Abrochtha kingi sp. nov.: habitus in dorsal view. B, Abrochtha sonneborni sp. nov.: habitus in dorsal view. Scale bar = 50 Mm.

Figure 7. Scanning electron microscopy picture of trophi of Abrochtha sonneborni sp. nov. in caudal view. Scale bar = 10 Mm.