Abstract
Asthenocotyle azorensis n. sp. (Monogenea: Microbothriidae) is described from the dermal denticles of the great lanternshark Etmopterus princeps Collett off the Azores. The type-species of the genus, A. kaikourensis Robinson, 1961, is redescribed and additional observations are made on A. taranakiensis Beverley-Burton, Klassen & Lester, 1987. The generic diagnosis is revised. The new species is distinguished from its two congeners by the large size of the pharynx and fewer testes. The ejaculatory bulb of A. kaikourensis is much larger than those of A. taranakiensis and A. azorensis and is supplied with many ducts from an extensive field of male accessory gland-cells located outside the genital pouch and extending posteriorly to the region of the germarium and external seminal vesicle. Asthenocotyle taranakiensis is distinguished from the other two species by its copulatory sclerite, which forms a double loop, although this may not be the case when the copulatory organ is extended. The bodies of A. azorensis and A. kaikourensis are similar in shape, with the maximum width approximately 37% and 25%, respectively, of the total length from the anterior end. In addition to the relatively small size of the genital pouch and ejaculatory bulb in A. azorensis and A. taranakiensis, the vaginal opening is adjacent to the common genital opening. In A. kaikourensis, the vaginal opening is distant from and posterior to the common genital opening. The functional morphology of the copulatory organ of A. azorensis is considered. The relative importance, for the taxonomy of microbothriids, of the number of testes versus the anatomy of the copulatory complex is discussed.
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References
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Acknowledgements
We thank Professor Gene Burreson (GB) and Dr Charles ‘Chip’ Cotton, both at VIMS, for providing specimens of the new taxon from the Azores collected as part of MAR-ECO, an international research project and part of the Census of Marine Life. We are indebted to Dr Claire J. Healy (CJH) at the ROM and to GB for supplying material from hoki trawls off New Zealand in 2005 and to CJH for further material from off New Zealand in 2007. All material from New Zealand was collected in collaboration with the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research Ltd on the M/V Tangaroa (project leader, Darren Stevens) with funding in 2005 from the National Science Foundation’s Partnerships for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy (project DEB 0118882, Principal Investigator: Professor Janine Caira) and in 2007 from Invertebrate Zoology, ROM. We appreciate the assistance of Leslie Chisholm and Vanessa Glennon, who mounted the specimens. We are grateful to the following Collection Managers and Curators for accessioning new museum material: Leslie Chisholm (SAMA), Janine Caira and Jane O’Donnell (LRP), Eileen Harris (NHM), CJH and Maureen Zubowski (ROM), and Pat Pilitt (USNPC). We also thank Pat Pilitt (USNPC) for providing digital images of type-material and Judith Price (CMNPA) for the loan of a paratype.
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Kearn, G.C., Whittington, I.D. & Thomas, P. A new species of Asthenocotyle Robinson, 1961 (Monogenea: Microbothriidae), a skin parasite of the great lanternshark Etmopterus princeps Collett from the Azores, with a redescription of A. kaikourensis Robinson, 1961 and observations on A. taranakiensis Beverley-Burton, Klassen & Lester, 1987. Syst Parasitol 83, 145–158 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11230-012-9378-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11230-012-9378-3