On the taxonomic status of a Dugesia species from Buenos Aires (Platyhelminthes: Turbellaria: Tricladida)

The taxonomic and distributional statuses of the freshwater planarians of South America are imperfectly understood, and a comprehensive review is sorely needed. The species known from the vicinity of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was first described by Böhmig (1902) under the name Planaria dubia Borelli,...

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Autor principal: Moretto, H.J.A
Formato: Capítulo de libro
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Kluwer Academic Publishers 1991
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Sumario:The taxonomic and distributional statuses of the freshwater planarians of South America are imperfectly understood, and a comprehensive review is sorely needed. The species known from the vicinity of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was first described by Böhmig (1902) under the name Planaria dubia Borelli, 1895. Subsequent authors (Kenk, 1930, 1974; Cazzaniga & Curino, 1987) have cast doubt on this assignation. Some have assigned it to Dugesia anceps Kenk; Hyman (1959) was inclined to regard the Buenos Aires planarian as a geographical variant of Dugesia sanchezi Hyman. A comparison of D. sanchezi from the mountainous region of central Chile with specimens from Buenos Aires confirms that the Argentinian material is a distinct species. The differences between the two species are subtle. The Argentinian specimens are distinctive in their possession of infranucleate epithelia of the atria, penis, and bursal canal, as well as in their penial structure. In both species, the epithelia of the atria and bursal canal are glandular. Those of D. sanchezi are nucleate and their secretions are cyanophilous. In the Argentinian specimens, these same epithelia are infranucleate; but while the secretion of the bursal canal is indeed cyanophilous, that of the atrium is erythrophilous. The presence, in these same specimens, of cyanophilous glands opening into the penial vesicles, and of erythrophilous glands whose secretions contribute to a viscous plug in the ejaculatory duct, suggests a difference in the physiology of copulation. It is apparent that the Argentinian specimens are distinct from D. sanchezi Hyman, and probably they represent a new species, one to be described in detail elsewhere. In any case, Hyman's (1959) suggestion that D. sanchezi occurs near Buenos Aires is mistaken; so also is Cazzaniga's & Curino's (1987) identification of specimens from Buenos Aires as D. anceps. © 1991 Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Bibliografía:Böhmig, L., Turbellarien, Rhabdocoeliden und Tricladien (1902) Hamburger Magalhaesische Sammelreise 1892–1893, 3, pp. 1-30
Cazzaniga, N.J., Curino, A.C., On Dugesia anceps (Kenk, 1930) from Argentina (Turbellaria: Tricladida) (1987) Bolletino di zoologia, 54, pp. 141-146
Hyman, L. H., 1959. On two freshwater planarians from Am. Mus. Novit. 1932: 1–11; Kenk, R., Beiträge zum System der Probursalier (Tricladida Paludicola). III. Versuch einer natürlichen Gruppierung der Probursalier (1930) Zool. Anz., 89, pp. 189-302
Kenk, R., Index of the genera and species of the freshwater triclads (Turbellaria) of the world (1974) Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 183, pp. 1-90
ISSN:00188158
DOI:10.1007/BF00027622