Satellitenemertes, Iwata, 2006

Iwata, Fumio, 2006, On four monostiliferous hoplonemerteans, including three new genera and species from Washington state and British Columbia, Journal of Natural History 40 (15 - 16), pp. 873-913 : 887-888

Genus Satellitenemertes gen. nov.

Type species

Satellitenemertes satellitensis gen., sp. nov.

Etymology

The generic and specific name refers to the place where the collection was made.

Diagnosis

Monostiliferous marine hoplonemerteans without cephalic grooves; body wall musculature with very thin and sparse lattice-type diagonal layer, longitudinal muscles not divided anteriorly; foregut opening into rhynchodeum near anterior end of brain and divisible into oesophagus, stomach and pylorus, and intestinal caecum with anterior and lateral diverticula; pre-cerebral septum of closed type, composed of radial bundles of longitudinal muscles; cephalic retractor muscles absent; rhynchodeum with thick circular muscle layer in posterior region; rhynchocoel extending more than half the body length, with wall containing two distinct layers; proboscis armature consisting of a single central stylet and two accessory stylet pouches; stylet bulb with plate-like connective tissue and thick layer of glandular cells; cerebral sensory organs large, reaching below anterior end of brain lobes; cerebral ganglia large, with neither neurochord cells nor inner neurilemma; lateral nerve cords without accessory nerves, myofibrillae, and peripheral nervous system; blood vascular system consisting of a simple vascular loop in head, dorsal vessel with a single vascular plug, and three post-cerebral vessels not transversely linked by pseudometameric connectives; frontal organ present, the frontal glands arranged as paired, well developed ventrolateral masses, and reaching the cerebral ganglia; cephalic glands present; sub-muscular glands absent; dorsoventral muscles and parenchyma absent; excretory system weakly developed and confined to foregut region of body; sexes separated.

Type species

Satellitenemertes satellitensis

Body color without pattern; ocelli forming two pairs of groups arranged parallel to the lateral sides of head; dermis thin; 11 proboscis nerves; intestinal diverticula not branched; a pair of excretory pores situated behind brain.