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Zoologischer Anzeiger

Volume 282, September 2019, Pages 52-63
Zoologischer Anzeiger

Research paper
A new species of Echinoderes (Cyclorhagida: Echinoderidae) from the San Juan Islands, Washington State, USA, and insights into the kinorhynch transcriptome,☆☆

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcz.2019.06.003Get rights and content

Abstract

A new kinorhynch species, Echinoderes kohni sp. nov., is described from the San Juan Archipelago, northwest Washington State, USA. The species’ spine/tube distribution combined with the presence of long, spiniform tergal extensions assign it to the Echinoderes spinifurca species group. It is distinguished from other species in the group by its enlarged fringe tips on the posterior sternal plate margins of segment 10, and by its distribution of type 2 glandular cell outlets and sensory spots. Together with the morphological description we provide a de novo assembled transcriptome for the species, generated from a single individual. This represents the first time a kinorhynch has been described together with genetic data beyond a barcode.

Introduction

The area around the San Juan Archipelago and Friday Harbor Laboratories in northwest Washington State, USA has a special historical position in kinorhynch research because R.P. Higgins carried out some of his earliest studies on Kinorhyncha in the region. His very first kinorhynch contributions were the descriptions of Echinoderes pennaki Higgins, 1960, Higginsium cataphractus (Higgins, 1961), Pycnophyes ilyocryptus Higgins, 1961, and Pycnophyes sanjuanensis Higgins, 1961, collected at Orcas Island in the San Juan Archipelago (Higgins 1960, 1961). These studies were later followed up by additional descriptions of San Juan kinorhynchs including Echinoderes kozloffi Higgins, 1977 and Pycnophyes parasanjuanensis Adrianov & Higgins, 1996.

The present contribution is also based in meiofaunal studies from the Friday Harbor Laboratories. During a summer zoological course, a new species of Echinoderes was found, and specimens were collected for taxonomic description and transcriptome sequencing. This allows us to describe a new species, belonging to the Echinoderes spinifurca-species group, but also to provide a high quality kinorhynch transcriptome from a single individual of the new species, making data available for future analyses of kinorhynchs and of ecdysozoans.

Section snippets

Sampling and processing

Samples were collected by authors RV and PF from muddy shell hash with a Van Veen grab aboard the vessel Centennial (Friday Harbor Laboratories) on July 7, 2017, at 64 m depth off San Juan Island, Washington State, USA (Reid Rock; 48°32′30″N 122°59′02″W). Additional samples were collected from muddy sediments on July 11, 2017, in the intertidal zone at low tide in Padilla Bay on the mainland near Bay View (48°29′17″N 122°58′57″W). Kinorhynchs were extracted using the ‘bubbling and blot’-method (

Taxonomic account

Class Cyclorhagida (Zelinka 1896) Sørensen et al. 2015.

Order Echinorhagata Sørensen et al. 2015.

Family Echinoderidae Zelinka 1894.

Genus Echinoderes Claparède, 1863.

Echinoderes kohni sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: DF1F1F6B-95BE-467A-B92B-2A3AF81D0A39.

Discussion

The genus Echinoderes accommodates more than 120 species with the inclusion of the new species described here. Of these only four other continental species are known from the NE Pacific: E. pennaki Higgins, 1960, E. kozloffi Higgins, 1977, Echinoderes hakaiensis Herranz et al., 2017 in Herranz et al., 2018, and Echinoderes ohtsukai Yamasaki & Kajihara, 2012 (Higgins 1960, 1977; Herranz & Leander 2016; Herranz et al. 2018). The latter of these might represent an introduced species (Herranz &

Acknowledgements

RV was supported by the Alan J. Kohn Endowed Fellowship to attend the Marine Invertebrate Zoology course at Friday Harbor Laboratories. We thank Friday Harbor Laboratories faculty, staff, and volunteers for supporting student experiences in marine science, notably Gustav Paulay, Kristy Kull, Derek Smith, and Billie Swalla.

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      3) Determining if distinct segmentation appeared before or after the diversification of kinorhynchs based on the position of the aberrant forms. Eighteen kinorhynch species from fifteen genera (Fig. 1) were sampled for de novo transcriptome sequencing and combined with three publicly available transcriptomes of Echinoderes kohni (Varney et al., 2019), Echinoderes dujardinii (Laumer et al., 2015), and Pycnophyes sp. (Smythe et al., 2019). Each genus is represented by a single species, except for Echinoderes, Pycnophyes and Zelinkaderes that are represented by two to four species each.

    This article is registered at www.zoobank.org under urn: lsid:zoobank.org:pub:31D1D0F5-87E5-4778-835F-FAE8B89726CF.

    ☆☆

    This article is a part of the Fifth International Scalidophora Workshop special issue published in Zoologischer Anzeiger 282C, 2019.

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