Microplana groga Jones, Webster, Littlewood and Mc Donald, 2008

Vila-Farré, Miquel, Sluys, Ronald, Mateos, Eduardo, Jones, Hugh D. & Romero, Rafael, 2011, Land planarians (Platyhelminthes: Tricladida: Geoplanidae) from the Iberian Peninsula: new records and description of two new species, with a discussion on ecology, Journal of Natural History 45 (15 - 16), pp. 869-891 : 872

Microplana groga Jones, Webster, Littlewood and Mc Donald, 2008

( Figures 1 , 2 , Table 1)

Material examined

The slides used for the identification of these animals from the area of el Montseny, el Molar (Catalunya, Northeastern Spain , one specimen, 1 February 2004), unfortunately have been lost .

Comparative discussion

Jones et al. (2008) described this species on the basis of five individuals previously identified as M. terrestris by Mateos et al. (1998). The individual presented here is attributed to M. groga and belongs to a population approximately 50 km from the type locality. It presents characteristics similar to those of the animals described by Jones et al. (2008) but it is externally different ( Figure 3A ). Instead of being “reddish to black” it is cream with small darker spots covering the entire dorsal surface. However, the copulatory apparatus ( Figure 3B ) is similar to that of M. groga , albeit that in our specimen the circular muscle layer surrounding the ejaculatory duct is stronger. Although we have observed differences between the external morphology of this specimen and M. groga we believe that both populations belong to the same species because of the similarities in the structure of the copulatory apparatus. Only after collecting new material will we be able to discern whether these are separate species rather than one, variable species.

Figures

Figure 1. Distributional records of terrestrial planarians from the Iberian Peninsula used for this study. Filled circles: localities with previously known species. Stars: localities with new species.

Figure 2. Microplana terrestris. (A,B) Specimen from Fragas do Eume: (A) living animal; (B) ZMA V.Pl. 6855.1, sagittal reconstruction of the copulatory apparatus; anterior to the left; epithelia of bulbar cavity and ejaculatory duct indicated by dotted line because limits are poorly defined in histological sections. (C,D) Specimen from Capdella; CRBA-3779a-l: (C) sagittal reconstruction of the copulatory apparatus; anterior to the left; (D) sagittal sections of the copulatory apparatus; anterior to the left.

Figure 3. Microplana groga. Specimen from El Molar, Montseny: (A) living animal, (B) sagittal reconstruction of the copulatory apparatus; anterior to the left.