Simsagittifera schultzei ( Schmidt 1852 ) Kostenko and Mamkaev, 1990

Faubel, A. & Warwick, R. M., 2005, The marine flora and fauna of the Isles of Scilly: Free-living Plathelminthes (‘ Turbellaria’), Journal of Natural History 39 (1), pp. 1-45 : 7-8

Simsagittifera schultzei ( Schmidt 1852) Kostenko and Mamkaev, 1990

Conυoluta schultzii Schmidt, 1852: 493 , pl. 44: 3–3a.

Monotus schultzii: Diesing, 1862: 212 .

Conυoluta υiridis Pereyaslawzewa, 1893: 229–230, Figure 7 .

Symsagittifera schultzei: Mamkaev and Kostenko, 1991: 309 .

Material examined

Voucher specimens: No. 48079, transversely sectioned specimen, locality: Plymouth Sound, deposited in Swedish Museum of Natural History ( SMNH), Stockholm; Nos 48080-81 ( SSP), same data .

Sites 10, 11: abundant, in squash preparation, stored on CD-ROM: 2003.6.6.2.

Geographical distribution. Mediterranean Sea: Gulf of Lion (Étang de Lapalme, Étang de Salses), Ligurian Sea (Villefranche sur mer), Tyrrhenian Sea (Gulf of Naples), Adriatic Sea (Gulf of Trieste: Punta Salvore, Meleda (Lago Grande)); Croatia: Rovinj; Italy: Ancona, Lesina), Sea of Marmara, Black Sea (Crimea: Sevastopol); English Channel: Plymouth Sound; NW Pacific: Japan (?) (v. Graff 1905; Steinböck 1933b; Okugawa 1953 (?); Ax 1956b, 1959).

Remarks

Simsagittifera schultzei was described by Schmidt (1852) only on morphological characters, i.e. outline of body, colour (green pigment, reddish brown rhabdoids) and bilateral testes. Later on, an essentially more informative account was given by von Graff (1905) of the morphology and anatomy of S. schultzei . Von Graff described sagittocysts as being 45– 50 M m long, and about 20 of them distributed only in the posterior part of the body. The male reproductive system consists of a short penis, ovoid or roundish, and a caudal seminal vesicle. Female organs were not observed. The description given by von Graff agrees well with the morphology and anatomy of the specimens collected. The only exception is von Graff described the presence of red eyes. In our material eyes are absent, just as stated by Schmidt (1852).

In 1975, Dörjes and Karling synonymized three serially sectioned specimens deposited by Westblad in the collection of the Swedish Museum of Natural History (SMNH) with Sagittifera sagittifera (Ivanov 1952) on the basis of the structure of the copulatory apparatus. This synonymization is incorrect because the sagittocysts of Sagittifera sagittifera are distributed characteristically both in the hind body and around the female opening and, in addition, in the mid-body bilaterally. A re-investigation of the serial sections made by Westblad proves that the three species of the SMNH identified by Dörjes and Karling (1975) are identical with Simsagittifera schultzei . The sagittocysts are only arranged lateral and posterior of the male copulatory apparatus. The number of sagittocysts is highly variable. In the section series SMNH 49079 the number runs to about 18 sagittocysts. In the section series SMNH 48080, sagittocysts are not developed though the specimen is sexually mature. The inner anatomy agrees well with the descriptions given by Schmidt (1852) and von Graff (1905), the exception being the presence of eyes mentioned by von Graff. The section series SMNH 48081 is incomplete.

Family HAPLOPOSTHIIDAE Westblad, 1948 Haplogonaria syltensis Dörjes, 1968

Material examined

Sites 1, 4: abundant, in squash preparation.

Geographical distribution. North Sea: North Frisian Islands (Sylt, RØmØ), German Bight ( Helgoland) ( Dörjes 1968a, 1968b; Faubel 1974 a, 1976 a, 1977).

Remarks

Haplogonaria syltensis is known from habitats of sand mixed with shells in 8 m water depth ( Helgoland), and of pure sand in eulittoral and sublittoral areas of the islands of Sylt and RØmØ. The latter eulittoral habitats are comparable to the localities at St Martin’s. Morphological differences, however, could be observed between the populations of the North Sea areas and populations of St Martin’s in the development of rhabdoids. The North Sea populations have weak rhabdoids. Often, the existence of rhabdoids was not easy to ascertain when squashed under a cover glass. On the contrary, the rhabdoids of the St Martin’s populations were very clear to discern and, moreover, the rhabdoids were more abundantly distributed over the body surface. All the other morphological characters looked identical, as well as the greenish-tinged central digestive tissue.

Figures

Figure 7. Prognathorhynchus sp. Hook organs of the proboscis on basal muscular plates. Scale bar: 50 Mm.