Systematics and biodiversity of Ophryotrocha (Annelida,Dorvilleidae) with descriptions of six new species from deep-sea whale-fall and wood-fall habitats in the north-east Pacific

Six new Ophryotrocha species are described from five whale-falls and two wood-falls off the southern Californian coast. Phylogenetic analyses based on the nuclear gene H3 and the mitochondrial genes COI and 16S using MrBayes and maximum likelihood analyses were performed on 40 dorvilleid taxa and one outgroup. Ophryotrocha batillus sp. nov. is morphologically identical to Ophryotrocha scutellus described from a shallow water whale-fall in the North Atlantic, although the two cryptic species differ genetically. Ophryotrocha langstrumpae sp. nov. is closely related in the molecular phylogenetic analyses to these two sibling species. Ophryotrocha flabella sp. nov. is similar to Ophryotrocha globopalpata, and although there are a few morphological differences, the genetic divergence is low between the two species. Ophryotrocha nauarchus sp. nov. is sexually dimorphic, with males having appendages on the first chaetiger. Ophryotrocha magnadentata sp. nov. and Ophryotrocha longicollaris sp. nov. are sister species in our molecular analyses, and together with O. nauarchus sp. nov. and O. flabella sp. nov. they fall within a clade that includes O. globopalpata and Exallopus jumarsi described from hydrothermal vents in the Pacific Ocean and Ophryotrocha longidentata from the shallow North Atlantic. Our results highlight the remarkable unknown diversity of deep-water habitats and the role of chemosynthetic ecosystems in the evolution of deep-sea life.     

Eine neueOphryotrocha-Art (Polychaeta,Eunicidae) aus Japan

Zusammenfassung 1. Ein japanischer Vertreter der kosmopolitischen PolychaetengattungOphryotrocha, O. notoglandulata n. sp., wird beschrieben.2.O. notoglandulata n. sp. ist eng mitO. labronica Bacci &La Greca verwandt.3. Besonderes Artmerkmal sind sternförmige Drüsenfelder auf den Dorsalflächen der hinteren 6–12 Segmente.4. Die neue Art ist getrenntgeschlechtlich.5. Das Geschlechtsverhältnis schwankt stark von Gelege zu Gelege. Im Mittel beträgt es 1,5:1.6.O. notoglandulata n. sp. ist mitO. labronica nicht kreuzbar.

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A newOphryotrocha species (polychaeta, eunicidae) from Japan

A new Japanese species ofOphryotrocha is described. It is characterized by oblong cells forming star-shaped glands of unknown function on the 6th to 12th of the youngest segments.Ophryotrocha notoglandulata n. sp. is closely related toOphryotrocha labronica Bacci &La Greca; both have the same chromosome number (2 n=6). The new species is gonochoristic with a sex ratio of approximately 1.5:1. In mass culture as well as in couples, no mutual influence on sex determination was found. It is impossible to obtain hybrids betweenO. labronica and the new species.

     

Jaw morphology and ontogeny in five species of Ophryotrocha

Detailed scanning electron microscopy of jaws within the genus Ophryotrocha (Dorvilleidae, Annelida) was performed on 871 jaw parts. The investigations resulted in new understandings of the ontogeny and jaw morphology and have systematic implications for the family. Five species in the genus (Ophryotrocha alborana, O. diadema, O. gracilis, O. hartmanni, and O. labronica pacifica) were kept in culture, and the development of the jaws was studied by sampling throughout their life history. Ophryotrocha species have mandibular plates that remain the same throughout ontogeny, whereas the posterior shafts elongate. Both mandibular plate morphology and shaft ontogeny have species‐specific distinctions. In Ophryotrocha, the maxillae can be assigned to three to four distinct types, which are replaced by moulting. The maxillary morphology and developmental stages at which moults occur are species specific, although with broad intervals. A redefinition is given for some of the basic jaw elements, and new homologies are proposed for structures that are also present across other dorvilleid taxa. J. Morphol. 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Studies in the pendulous-flowered species of Rustia (Rubiaceae,Condamineeae), including a new species,Rustia schunkeana

During a revision of the genusRustia, the two pendulous-flowered taxa,R. secundiflora andR. splendens, are here lectotypified and found to be synonymous. Examination of specimens identified asR. secundiflora have revealed an additional pendulous-flowered species:R. schunkeana. A key to the four species ofRustia with pendulous flowers is provided.     

Cryptic species and colonization processes in Ophryotrocha (Annelida,Dorvilleidae) inhabiting vertebrate remains in the shallow‐water Mediterranean

Over the past several years, there has been growing interest in how bones of decaying mammals are colonized in the marine seabed. One of the most common opportunistic taxa occurring worldwide on bones is dorvilleid polychaetes of the genus Ophryotrocha. In a recent study in the Mediterranean, Ophryotrocha puerilis and Ophryotrocha alborana were two of the most abundant species occurring in experimentally deployed bones. These species have direct development and this makes them a suitable model to study the mechanisms and processes allowing organisms lacking a dispersive larval phase to colonize new substrates. Here, we address the colonization processes at the molecular level for populations of O. puerilis and O. alborana on experimentally deployed mammal bones in the shallow‐water Mediterranean collected over a year at 3‐month intervals. High genetic distances between some of the O. puerilis organisms collected indicated the occurrence of at least two cryptic sibling species (O. puerilis ‘Shallow’ and O. puerilis ‘Deep’) apart from O. puerilis sensu stricto. This was corroborated with phylogenetic analyses using an alignment of three concatenated genes (COI, 16S, H3) and with species delimitation analyses using COI. The haplotype network inferred from COI sequences for O. puerilis ‘Shallow’ showed a few common haplotypes shared between the two trimesters analysed and several other less represented haplotypes only present in one trimester. Thus, colonization of these experimental bones may have been achieved by a few organisms that arrived to the bones and were able to reseed, and by several individuals arriving to the experimental bones and not persisting across time. In contrast, the haplotype network for O. alborana revealed that none of the haplotypes present in three different trimesters were shared, suggesting that the populations arriving at the bones during each trimester were totally replaced by new individuals during the subsequent trimesters. Our study suggests that different species of shallow‐water Ophryotrocha occurring in the Mediterranean may have different patterns of substrate colonization despite sharing similar life histories.     

A new species ofPalaeospinax (Chondrichthyes,Neoselachii) from the Lower JurassicPosidonia Shale of Southern Germany

The diagnosis of the fossil neoselachian genusPalaeospinax Egerton 1872 is revised. A new species from the Lower ToarcianPosidonia Shale of Southern Germany is described asPalaeospinax politus n. sp. It differs from all other known members of the genus in having smooth anterior and lateral teeth.     

Comparative study of cultures of four species of the genusOudemansiella

Thirty stationary and submerged cultures of species of the genusOudemansiella Speg.,viz. two narrow-region species (O. brunneomarginata, O. canarii) and two primarily wideregion species (O.mucida, O. radicata) were compared. Stationary cultures have identical macroscopic and microscopic features (they produce crust, teleomorph, large thick-walled basidiospores with an apiculum and an uneven surface, dikaryotic hyphae have clamp connections). “Coils” were detected in the mycelium of two species by SEM. Submerged cultures produce antibacterial and particularly antifungal antibiotics, although with various intensity.O. brunneomarginata was first studied in pure culture and its microstructures were first studied by SEM. It could be demonstrated that this species is related with other representatives of the genusOudemansiella. In the present taxonomy of basidiomycetes it is advisable to extend and deepen data concerning a single genusOudemansiella with a series of interspecies taxons, without impairing “borders” of the genus.     

Assignment ofKluyveromyces cellobiovorus nomen nudum toCandida intermedia (Ciferri & Ashford) Langeron et Guerra

A yeast culture isolated in Japan from soil and invalidly described asKluyveromyces cellobiovorus nom. nud. DBVPG 6286 (CBS 7153) was compared for its physiological and morphological properties and by nDNA-nDNA reassociation experiments with the type strains of several species of the genusKluyveromyces as well as of variousCandida species exhibiting similar phenotypic profiles. DBVPG 6286 was found to be conspecific with the type strain ofCandida intermedia (Ciferri & Ashford) Langeron et Guerra (1938).     

Occurrence of two species of stingrays of the genusDasyatis (Chondrichthyes) in the Sanaga Basin,Cameroun

Synopsis Two species of the genusDasyatis were collected in the lower Sanaga Basin in the vicinity of Edéa, Cameroun, West Africa, during a survey from November 1985 to January 1986. Of these specimens, 34 were identified asD. garouaensis and one asD. ukpam. Thirty-one specimens ofD. garouaensis and oneD. ukpam were caught in the lower reaches of the Sanaga River while three were taken at the junction between the Nyong River and the channel connecting the two rivers. The distribution pattern of the two species is discussed.     

Acronema johrianum Babu (Apiaceae) : A new species from the Himalayas of Nepal

A new apiaceous species of the genusAcronema Falc. ex Edgew. is described from the central Himalayas. Its affinities with other closely allied species ofAcronema, such asA. tenerum (DC.) Edgew. andA. hookeri (Cl.) Wolff are briefly discussed.     

Notulae de Chrysobalanaceis Malesianis Praecursoriae

In preparation for the treatment of Chrysobalanaceae forFlora Malesiana, New and critical taxa are discussed and described. Two new species were found,Atuna cordata andParastemon grandifructus.Hunga fusicarpa is transferred to the genusLicania asL. fusicarpa. Species complexes aroundParinari costata andP. papuana are discussed; in both cases previously recognized species are reduced to subspecific rank within rather polymorphic species.     

Systematic observations on tropical Asian medakas or ricefishes of the genusOryzias, with descriptions of four new species

The so-calledOryzias melastigma (McClelland, 1839), reported from India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Malaysia by numerous authors beginning with Day (1877), is based mainly or entirely onAplocheilus panchax (Hamilton, 1822). India and Bangladesh have two species ofOryzias, both large. The deeper-bodied of these two species is reported for the first time asO. dancena (Hamilton, 1822). The other is identified asO. carnaticus (Jerdon, 1849). Myanmar has one large species,O. dancena, and one tiny species,O. uwai new species.Oryzias minutillus Smith, 1945 andO. uwai differ from all otherOryzias in having 4/5 instead of 5/6 principal caudal fin rays.Oryzias uwai differs fromO. minutillus in being more conspicuously pigmented and having large, 6-rayed pelvic fins often extending to anal fin origin instead of much smaller and shorter 5-rayed pelvic fins. In Thailand (including its part of the Mekong basin) three species are known: a large estuarine species tentatively identified asO. javanicus (Bleeker, 1854) and two tiny inland species,O. mekongensis Magtoon & Uwa, 1986, andO. minutillus. Oryzias minutillus from many localities are more or less melanoproctic, i.e. have a darkly pigmented genital or vent area not seen in other species. The Mekong basin in Laos has two large species,O. latipes (Temminck & Schlegel, 1846) andO. pectoralis new species, distinguished by a prominent black blotch on the pectoral fin base, both recently collected in the Nam Theun watershed in central Laos; and two tiny species,O. mekongensis andO. minutillus. Only one species ofOryzias is known from the Mekong delta in Vietnam, the small moderately deep-bodiedO. haugiangensis new species, with 19–22 anal and 9–10 pectoral fin rays. The Indonesian island of Java has one large species,O. javanicus (Bleeker, 1852) with 21–25 anal and 11 pectoral fin rays, and one small species,O. hubbsi new species, with only 17–21 anal and 9 pectoral fin rays.