Kytorhynchidarum

Steenkiste, Niels Van, Tessens, Bart, Krznaric, Kathleen & Artois, Tom, 2011, Dalytyphloplanida (Platyhelminthes: Rhabdocoela) from Andalusia, Spain, with the description of four new species, Zootaxa 2791, pp. 1-29 : 5

Kytorhynchidarum sp.

( Fig. 2 D)

Locality. Rota, Provincia de Cádiz, Spain (36°38’09”N, 6°23’50”W). Los Corrales: thin layer of very coarse sand in intertidal pools on a rocky cape (11/04/2008).

Material. Observations on a live animal and one serially-sectioned specimen of poor quality, probably a young animal.

Remarks. The animal has two lateral eyes and the typical proboscis-like anterior invagination diagnostic for Kytorhynchidae Rieger, 1974 ( Fig. 2 D). Behind the eyes, two oblong structures, probably the testes, stretch caudally. The pharynx is situated in the caudal body half.

Because neither the observations on the live animal, nor the serially-sectioned specimen revealed much about its internal structures, it is impossible to identify these specimens.

Kytorhynchidae is a peculiar and rare taxon, traditionally placed in the non-kalyptorhynch rhabdocoels. Kytorhynchidae have only been recorded from the Atlantic and Pacific coast of North America (North Carolina: Rieger 1974; California: pers. comm. from Karling in Rieger 1974), the Caribbean Sea (Florida Keys: Rieger 1974), Bermuda ( Rieger 1974), the Galapagos Islands ( Ehlers & Ehlers 1981), the Hawaiian Islands (own unpublished data), the Skagerrak (record from Karling in Rieger 1974), the North Sea (Sylt: pers. comm. from Ehlers in Schockaert & Martens 1985; Belgian Continental Shelf: own unpublished records), Sardinia (pers. comm. from Christopher Laumer, Ernest Schockaert and Wim Willems) and Somalia ( Schockaert & Martens 1985), making the record from Spain the fifth locality in Europe. However, as for the specimens from Andalusia, none of the other animals found along the European or African coasts yielded a positive identification.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Trigonostomum penicillatum (Schmidt, 1857) Micoletzky, 1910 (A) Stylet from the whole mount. (B) Bursal appendage from a live animal. Promesostoma maculosum Ax, 1956 (C) Stylet and copulatory organ from a live animal. Kytorhynchidarum sp. (D) Head region. Phaenocora sp.? Ehrenberg, 1836 (E) Live animal. Strongylostoma elongatum Hofsten, 1907 (F) Copulatory organ from a live animal.