Kuma flava, Hooge, Matthew D., Smith, Julian P. S. & Iii, 2004

Hooge, Matthew D., Smith, Julian P. S. & Iii, 2004, New acoels (Acoela, Acoelomorpha) from North Carolina, Zootaxa 442, pp. 1-24 : 13-16

Kuma flava sp. nov. ( Figs. 9–10 )

Type Material: Holotype. AMNH PLATY 1650, set of 1.5­µm­thick serial frontal sections of epoxy­embedded specimen stained with toluidine blue, collected October 2002. Paratypes. AMNH PLATY 1651, set of 1.5­µm­thick serial sagittal sections; AMNH PLATY 1652, epoxy­embedded whole mount.

Type Locality. Oak Island, NC, from shallow subtidal coarse to medium grained sand inside Lockwoods Folly Inlet (33° 54' 53"N, 78° 14' 06"W).

Other Material Examined. Living specimens in squeeze preparations; set of 1.5­ µm­thick serial frontal sections of epoxy­embeded specimen.

Etymology. Species name comes from the Latin flavus, gold­colored, and refers to the species body color.

Synonyms. Kuma sp.: Smith 1981, Smith & Tyler 1985.

Description. Mature specimens ~510 µm long and ~100 µm wide ( Figs. 9 A, 10A). Body cylindrical. Anterior and posterior ends rounded; posterior more blunt. Body color gold by transmitted light. Epidermis completely ciliated. Many large rhabdoid glands present; mostly concentrated at anterior end ( Fig. 9 A).

Frontal organ well developed; cell bodies of frontal glands positioned ~80 µm behind frontal pore ( Fig. 9 A).

Mouth opening on ventral surface, middle of body.

Ovary unpaired, ventral; extends ~150 µm posteriorly from level of mouth ( Fig. 9 A).

Testes paired, lateral to ovary, compact; separate from ovary. Testes extend from level of mouth posteriorly to seminal vesicle.

Female gonopore, seminal bursa, and female accessories all absent.

Male gonopore terminal at posterior end of body; gonopore closer to ventral side. Proximal opening of long (~60 µm) ciliated antrum surrounded by ring of large mucoid glands whose tips open into antrum ( Figs. 9 , 10 B). Antrum body­wall musculature composed of circular and longitudinal muscles; antrum musculature surrounded by darkly staining nuclei­perhaps insunk nuclei of antrum epithelium. Large unwalled seminal vesicle positioned at proximal end of male antrum ( Figs. 9 B, 10B).

Remarks. The taxa Haploposthia and Kuma are closely related genera with only minor differences between them. The germinal center for eggs and sperm are separate in Kuma , but combined in Haploposthia . Although the diagnosis provided by Faubel (1976) for the genus Kuma includes the character “uncolored”, this does not seem to preclude our species from inclusion in the genus, especially since two other species of Kuma , K.

monogonophora (Westblad, 1946) and K. viridis (An der Lan, 1936) have green coloration. Among species of Kuma , K. flava is similar to K. albiventer (Marcus, 1954) , K. monogonophora , and K. viridis , which all have conspicuous gland cells ringing the proximal end of the male antrum. However, K. albiventer has a ventrally opening male gonopore, K. monogonophora has several stimulatory needles that open into the male antrum, and K. viridis has a female gonopore, all features not shared with K. flava .

Figures

FIGURE 9. Kuma flava sp. nov.; reconstructions to show arrangement of organs. A. Dorsal reconstruction of whole organism. B. Frontal reconstruction of reproductive structures. cs, digestive central syncytium; e, egg; fg, frontal gland; m, mouth; ma, male antrum; mg, mucoid glands; n, nucleus; rh, rhabdoid gland; sp, sperm; st, statocyst; sv, seminal vesicle; t, testes.

FIGURE 10. Kuma flava sp. nov.; photomicrographs of living specimen. A. Whole­mount. B. Dorsal view of posterior. e, egg; ma, male antrum; mg, mucoid glands; sv, seminal vesicle.