New records of Cotylea (Polycladida, Platyhelminthes) from Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia, with remarks on the distribution of the Pseudoceros Lang, 1884 and Pseudobiceros Faubel, 1984 species of the Indo-Pacific Marine Region

Abstract

In the present work eleven polyclad species of Lizard Island are studied. Seven of them are new records for this locality of the Australian coral reef and one is new to science, Lurymare clavocapitata n. sp. (Family Prosthiostomidae). The remaining recorded species belong to the genera Pseudoceros (P. bimarginatus, P. jebborum, P. stimpsoni, P. zebra, P. paralaticlavus and P. prudhoei) and Pseudobiceros (Pb. hancockanus, Pb. hymanae, Pb. flowersi and Pb. uniarborensis). Regardless of the different distribution patterns, all pseudocerotid species show brilliant colours, but similar internal morphology. Furthermore, differences in the form and size of the stylet are characteristic, because it is a sclerotic structure that is not affected during fixation. In Pseudoceros, the distance between the sucker and the female pore also differs among species. These features do not vary enough to be considered as diagnostic, but they provide information that can help to disentangle similarly coloured species complexes. A key of the genera Pseudoceros and Pseudobiceros of the Indo-Pacific region is provided, in order to facilitate the identification of species from this area.

Assessing cryptic marine fauna diversity as underwater macrophotography (UMP) objects in Sempu Strait, Indonesia

“…The fishes identifications are mainly compared to identification books [19][20][21], while the sea slugs are compared to various sources like book [22], scientific publications [23][24][25][26][27], and additionally the Bill Rudman's Sea Slug Forum [28]. The polyclad flatworms identified by comparing to journals [29][30][31][32], while the arthropods (crustacean) identifed by comparing to book [33].…”

A New Species of <i>Prosthiostomum</i> (Platyhelminthes: Polycladida) from Shirahama, Japan

“…In addition, Bahia and Schrödl (2018) transferred P. cynarium Marcus, 1950 to Lurymare based on examination of the type material. A new species, L. clavocapitata, has been described by Marquina et al (2015) from Lizard Island (Queensland, Australia) and placed in the genus based on Faubel's (1984) strict definition, which currently amounts to eight species. According to Prudhoe (1989), the validity of Lurymare appears to be uncertain because a muscle sheath enclosing prostatic vesicles could develop as maturity increases in several Prosthiostomum species.…”

Two new Pseudoceros (Platyhelminthes: Polycladida: Pseudocerotidae) from Agatti Island, India and a species checklist from Indian waters

“…This criterion of identification based on colours was further supported by Goggin & Newman (1996) and Litvaitis & Newman (2001) based on ribosomal nucleotide sequences. However, when species share relatively homogeneous external features such as colour or colouration patterns, internal characters such as orientation of seminal vesicle, morphology of the prostatic vesicle, depth of the male atrium, shape and size of the stylet, distance between sucker and female gonopore (Bolaños et al ., 2007; Marquina et al ., 2015) and musculature of the penile sheath (Ramos-Sánchez et al ., 2020) can be considered.…”