GONZALES & GOSLINER: NEW SPECIES OF PHILINE FROM THE INDO-PACIFIC 369 
Geographical DiSTRffiUxiON. — Thus far, this species is known only from the western end 
of the Verde Island Passage, separating southern Luzon and northern Mindoro. 
Etymology.— The name verdensis refers to the Verde Island Passage, the only locality from 
which this species is known. 
Natural history.— This species has been found in muddy sand in 132-172 m depth. No 
prey items were found in the gizzard and no other information about its feeding ecology is known. 
Description. — External morphology. The living animals (Figs. IF) are up to 17 mm in 
length 10 mm wide. The body color of the living animal is uniformly white with yellowish pigment 
on the anterior end of the cephalic shield and in the mantle cavity on the ventral side. The roughly 
trapezoidal cephalic shield is longer than the posterior shield and is not indented posteriorly. It is 
widest anteriorly and tapers to a blunt posterior end. The parapodia are relatively short (Fig. 9A), 
reaching the cephalic shield, but leaving the anterior and posterior shields almost entirely visible. 
The posterior end of the posterior shield blunt and has a rounded posterior terminal (Fig. 9B). The 
gill is simply plicate consisting of eight primary folds and is situated ventrally on the right poste¬ 
rior end of the animal. 
Shell (Fig. 8A): The shell was slightly damaged during collection in the trawl. It is quite broad 
with a relatively low profile, where it occupies the majority of the posterior shield. 
The shell lacks any obvious sculpture, but spiral growth lines are evident over the shell surface. 
Digestive system (Figs. 8B-E, 9C): The buccal mass is relatively small, occupying the anteri¬ 
or quarter of the anterior shield. The buccal bulb has a relatively small radula. The radular formu¬ 
la in the paratype is 18 x 1.0.1. The inner lateral teeth are large (Fig. 8E) and broad with a curved 
prominent cusp. Their masticatory margin has a series of up to 45 elongate, closely-crowded den¬ 
ticles. Outer lateral teeth are absent. There is a large ventral oral gland and small dorsal oral glands. 
At the posterior end of the buccal mass, near the Junction with the crop, is a pair of short salivary 
glands. The gizzard is large and highly muscular, much wider than the buccal bulb. There are 
unequal gizzard plates (Fig. 9C) that are elongate with rounded apices. The unpaired plate is small¬ 
er (Fig. 8B) than the paired plates (Fig. 8C) and all plates have paired holes that are large in size. 
There is not an organized pattern of fine microscopic network on the gizzard plates, although a 
fibrous network is evident (Fig. 8D). The gizzard narrows posteriorly and enters the digestive 
gland. The intestine emerges from the right side of the digestive gland and tenninates near the pos¬ 
terior end of the body near the base of the gill. 
Central Nervous System (Fig. 9D); The circumesophageal nerve ring consists of paired cere¬ 
bral, pedal and pleural ganglia and a single supraintestinal ganglion immediately posterior to the 
right pleural ganglion. The cerebral and pedal commissures are both somewhat elongate with well- 
separated respective ganglia. On the ventral side of the buccal mass near the entrance of the esoph¬ 
agus are the buccal ganglia, which are immediately adjacent to each other. From the posterior end 
of the anterior nerve ring the right branch of the visceral loop the osphradial nerve extends poste¬ 
riorly from the supraintestinal ganglion. The two lateral branches of the visceral loop join posteri¬ 
orly at the posterior ganglia. The left visceral loop enters the subintestinal ganglion, while the right 
lateral nerve enters the visceral ganglion. The visceral ganglion is larger than the subintestinal gan¬ 
glion. From the visceral ganglion is the genital nerve, which does not appear to have a distinct gen¬ 
ital ganglion. 
Reproductive System (Figs. 8F, 9E, F): The reproductive system is not fully mature. The 
arrangement of reproductive organs is essentially monaulic (as discussed by Gosliner 1994) but 
with a single branch of the hennaphroditic duct to the albumen and membrane glands (Fig. 9E). 
From the large ovotestis, which is intermingled with the digestive gland, emerges the narrow, con¬ 
voluted ampulla. The ampulla narrows further at the point where the hermaphroditic duct again 
