Hausera Leal-Zanchet & Souza

Leal-Zanchet, Ana Maria, de Souza, Stella Teles & Ferreira, Rodrigo Lopes, 2014, A new genus and species for the first recorded cave-dwelling Cavernicola (Platyhelminthes) from South America, ZooKeys 442, pp. 1-15 : 2-3

Taxon classification Animalia Tricladida Dimarcusidae

Genus Hausera Leal-Zanchet & Souza gen. n.

Type-species.

Hausera hauseri Leal-Zanchet & Souza, sp. n. Monotypic

Diagnosis.

Dimarcusidae without eyes and without a copulatory bursa; female genital duct communicating with the intestine; ovovitelline ducts without caudal di chotomy, uniting to form a common ovovitelline duct; follicular testes; sperm ducts separately penetrating the penis bulb.

Distribution.

Felipe Guerra (Crotes cave), Brazil

Etymology.

The new genus is dedicated to the late Prof Dr Josef Hauser SJ as acknowledgement of his great enthusiasm for the study of freshwater flatworms. Gender: feminine.

Differentiation of the genus.

The specimens of Hausera hauseri show features concordant with the definition of the family Dimarcusidae , viz. common oviduct or diverticulum oriented perpendicular to the horizontal bursal canal or female genital duct, penis bulb provided with glandular elements, ovaries generally located at some distance posterior to the brain, vasa deferentia (= sperm ducts) uniting to extra-bulbar common vas deferens or penetrating separately the penis bulb and testicular follicles fused or discrete ( Sluys 1990). The specimens herein described show cell bodies of the penis glands within the bulb, the horizontal orientation of the female genital duct combined with the dorsal opening of the common oviduct, sperm ducts penetrating separately the penis bulb and discrete testicular follicles. The ovaries are situated posterior to the brain, but are close to it.

It is worth mentioning that the specimens of Hausera hauseri have a connection with the intestine that could be confused with a copulatory bursa in which the branch of the intestine immediately posterior to the bursa may stain differently from other parts of the posterior intestinal branches. In all examined specimens, the connections with other parts of the posterior intestinal branches could be traced, leading to the conclusion that a bursa is absent in Hausera hauseri .

Similarly to Rhodax , Hausera gen. n. does not have a copulatory bursa. Other diagnostic characters of Rhodax , however, such as presence of eyes, fused testes, sperm ducts uniting before penetrating the penis bulb and ovovitelline ducts with a caudal dichotomy do not occur in Hausera gen. n. Similarly to Opisthobursa , the sperm ducts separately penetrate the penis bulb in the new genus, but the latter lacks a bursa, in contrast to the genus Opisthobursa .