A new species of Dugesia (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida, Dugesiidae) from China, with an account on the histochemical structure of its major nervous system

By

Song, Xiao-Yu
Li, Wei-Xuan
Sluys, Ronald
Huang, Shu-Xin
Li, Shuang-Fei
Wang, An-Tai

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2020

Original Publication

Zoosystematics and evolution

Volume

96

Pages

431--447

Subjects

acetylcholinesterase (AChE) , Histochemistry , molecular phylogeny , taxonomy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia Pensoft

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.96.52484

 

Abstract

By means of an integrated approach, including molecular, morphological, anatomical and histological data, we describe a new species of freshwater flatworm of the genus Dugesia from southwest China, representing the third species recorded for the country. Morphologically, the new species, Dugesia umbonata Song & Wang, sp. nov., is particularly characterised by the presence of a muscularised hump immediately antero-dorsally to a knee-shaped bend in its bursal canal and by an ejaculatory duct that opens subterminally through the dorsal side of the penis papilla. Four molecular datasets (18S rDNA; ITS-1; 28S rDNA; COI) facilitated determination of the phylogenetic position of the new species, which belongs to a clade comprising other species from the Australasian and Oriental regions. We also analysed the structure of its major nervous system by means of the acetylcholinesterase (AChE) histochemical method and compared these results with data available for three other species of Dugesia.