Phaenocora salinarum ( Graff, 1882 ) Wahl, 1910

Houben, Albrecht M., Steenkiste, Niels Van & Artois, Tom J., 2014, Revision of Phaenocora Ehrenberg, 1836 (Rhabditophora, Typhloplanidae, Phaenocorinae) with the description of two new species, Zootaxa 3889 (3), pp. 301-354 : 348

Phaenocora salinarum ( Graff, 1882) Wahl, 1910

Derostoma salinarum Graff 1882: 91 , 99, 136, 367, 369–370, plate 13 Fig. 21; Braun 1885: 221; Vejdovský 1895: 122; Graff 1913: 459; Beklemischev 1927: 194; Gilbert 1935: 285, 365.

Phaenocora salinarum Wahl 1910: 42 ; Wilhelmi 1913: 111; Stummer-Traunfels & Meixner 1930: 3467; Gilbert 1935: 285. Phaenocora (?) salinarum Hyman 1951: 135 –136.

Known distribution: Koper ( Slovenia) near Trieste ( Italy), in high saline ditches ( Graff 1882).

According to Graff (1882) the animals are about 1 mm long, with kidney-shaped eyes. Body pigmentation is absent. The anterior end of the body bears long bristles. The genital pore is situated just behind the body midline and the copulatory organs are situated anterior from the gonopore.

Graff (1913) placed this species (as Derostoma salinarum ) into the “genera dubia et species dubiae Rhabdocoelidorum”, thereby showing that he doubted its validity as a species of Derostoma (now Phaenocora ). New material is needed to confirm or falsify whether this indeed is a species of Phaenocora , and further investigation is needed to determine the construction of the reproductive structures.