Notospermus tricuspidatus (Quoy and Gaimard, 1833)

Gibson, Ray & Sundberg, Per, 2002, Some heteronemerteans (Nemertea) from the Solomon Islands, Journal of Natural History 36 (15), pp. 1785-1804 : 1788-1789

Notospermus tricuspidatus (Quoy and Gaimard, 1833)

(gure 2)

Material examined

One specimen, collected from a coral reef at at Rove near White River , just west of Honiara .

External features

The single specimen was 15–20 cm long and 2 cm wide in life, the bulky but dorsoventrally attened body having a solid consistency. When contracted, the body surface appeared distinctly corrugated and the head was clearly demarcated from the trunk. The overall colour was a dark rich green, almost black but with a beautiful deep green tinge. On the head a single transverse white band formed a characteristic W- or zigzagged-shape (gure 2), and the large lateral horizontal cephalic slits possessed light, phosphorescent-green margins. Apart from the shape of the head, which appeared somewhat diVerent from that illustrated by Gibson (1981), no other diVerences could be distinguished between this specimen and previous descriptions of the species; the shape of the head in this species is already known to vary between the living and preserved state (gure 2A, B), and the shape of the head in the present specimen is not therefore regarded as signi cant.

Internal anatomy

The anatomy of N. tricuspidatus was redescribed, as Lineus tricuspidatus , by Gibson (1981: 207–212, gures 21–25), Gibson (1995) listing the synonymou s names by which this species has been reported from several localities. Studies on sections of the present material show no signi cant diVerences from Gibson’s (1981) account and the Solomon Island specimen is accordingly identi ed as Notospermus tricuspidatus .

Geographic distribution

Notospermus tricuspidatus possesses a wide distribution extending from Kenya and Mauritius in the Indian Ocean to the East China, Banda and Timor Seas and western Paci c Ocean ( Guam, Loyalty Islands and eastern coast of Australia from New South Wales to the Great Barrier Reef). It has not previously been recorded from the Solomon Islands.