Verrillianemertes schultzei Senz, 2001

Remarks

Described based on four specimens from Umm al-Dalkh oil field in the Persian Gulf, off the United Arab Emirates, up to 3 mm in body length. With two to six eyes. The rhynchocoel is half the length of the body; its wall is mainly composed of circular muscle fibres, but longitudinal muscle fibres are also interwoven to varying degrees, a condition otherwise not hitherto reported in Monostilifera . The cerebral organs are simple, reaching back to 66% of the pre-septal region; the position of the organs thus differs from that in Cratenemertea .A stylet apparatus is missing from V. schultzei . Whether or not the mid-dorsal vessel forms a vascular plug is unknown. While the type species of the genus Verrillianemertes rathkei Senz, 2001 likely belongs in Amphiporina, V. schultzei cannot be placed with certainty in any of the higher taxon recognized in this paper.