Phagocata

Vila-Farré, Miquel, Sluys, Ronald, Almagro, Ío, Handberg-Thorsager, Mette & Romero, Rafael, 2011, Freshwater planarians (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida) from the Iberian Peninsula and Greece: diversity and notes on ecology, Zootaxa 2779, pp. 1-38 : 24

Phagocata sp.

( Figs. 1 , 14 )

Comparative discussion. Phagocata vitta is widely distributed in Europe, with the exception of the Alps, Italy and the Balkan Peninsula, where it is replaced by other species ( Ball & Reynoldson, 1981). Its main characteristics are an absence of pigmentation (similar to Ph. sp. Fig. 14 ), the dilatation of the ejaculatory duct that forms a characteristic cavity, and the presence of only one retinal cell in each eye (Sluys et al. 1995). Reproduction may be sexual or asexual by fission. We never observed sexually mature specimens during our samplings and therefore we refrain from assigning these Iberian populations to Ph. vitta .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Distributional records of the genera Schmidtea, Ph. sp. and Ph. cf. vitta in the Iberian Peninsula. Data from Arndt, 1926; Baguñà et al. 1980, 81; Ribas, 1990; Altaba et al. 1991; unpublished records, this study.

FIGURE 14. Phagocata sp., specimen from a small tributary creek of the Barcaliente stream (León, northern Spain), living animal.