Microplana groga Jones, Webster, Littlewood and Mc Donald 2008
Description
Microplana groga Jones, Webster, Littlewood and Mc Donald, 2008
(Figures 1, 2, Table 1)
Material examined
The slides used for the identification of these animals from the area of el Montseny, el Molar (Catalunya, Northeastern Spain, one specimen, 1 February 2004), unfortunately have been lost.
Comparative discussion
Jones et al. (2008) described this species on the basis of five individuals previously identified as M. terrestris by Mateos et al. (1998). The individual presented here is attributed to M. groga and belongs to a population approximately 50 km from the type locality. It presents characteristics similar to those of the animals described by Jones et al. (2008) but it is externally different (Figure 3A). Instead of being “reddish to black” it is cream with small darker spots covering the entire dorsal surface. However, the copulatory apparatus (Figure 3B) is similar to that of M. groga, albeit that in our specimen the circular muscle layer surrounding the ejaculatory duct is stronger. Although we have observed differences between the external morphology of this specimen and M. groga we believe that both populations belong to the same species because of the similarities in the structure of the copulatory apparatus. Only after collecting new material will we be able to discern whether these are separate species rather than one, variable species.
Notes
Files
Files
(1.8 kB)
Name | Size | Download all |
---|---|---|
md5:a7b069f6489e14e104119dcb00e5bb9b
|
1.8 kB | Download |
System files
(12.4 kB)
Name | Size | Download all |
---|---|---|
md5:6e583934a94036f6316838abd812d859
|
12.4 kB | Download |
Linked records
Additional details
Identifiers
Biodiversity
- Event date
- 2004-02-01
- Family
- Geoplanidae
- Genus
- Microplana
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Order
- Tricladida
- Phylum
- Platyhelminthes
- Scientific name authorship
- Jones, Webster, Littlewood and Mc Donald
- Species
- groga
- Taxon rank
- species
- Verbatim event date
- 2004-02-01
- Taxonomic concept label
- Microplana groga Jones, 2008 sec. Vila-Farré, Sluys, Mateos, Jones & Romero, 2011
References
- Jones HD, Webster BL, Littlewood DTJ, McDonald JC. 2008. Molecular and morphological evidence for two new species of terrestrial planarians of the genus Microplana (Platyhelminthes; Turbellaria; Tricladida; Terricola) from Europe. Zootaxa. 1945: 1 - 38.
- Mateos E, Giribet G, Carranza S. 1998. Terrestrial planarians (Platyhelminthes, Terricola) from the Iberian Peninsula: first records of the family Rhynchodemidae, with the description of a new Microplana species. Contrib Zool. 67: 267 - 276.