Description and phylogenetic position of the first sand-dwelling entoproct from the western coast of North America: Loxosomella vancouverensis sp. nov.

Abstract

The Entoprocta is a poorly known lineage of suspension-feeding animals, with 180 described species, most of which are colonial or commensal. A small number of interstitial entoprocts are known, and these are from very few localities in Europe and the eastern coast of North America. We found the solitary entoproct reported here while undertaking a meiofaunal biodiversity survey off the western coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. This species, Loxosomella vancouverensis sp. nov., is the first putatively meiofaunal entoproct described from the western coast of North America.

Keywords:

• eastern North Pacific Ocean
• Vancouver Island
• Entoprocta
• Loxosomatidae
• meiofauna biodiversity

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Acknowledgements

We thank the staff of the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre (Bamfield, B.C., Canada) for hosting our field research. We thank three anonymous reviewers for comments that improved the manuscript. This work was supported by the Tula Foundation (Centre for Microbial Diversity and Evolution), the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC 283091-09) and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Program in Integrated Microbial Diversity.

Notes

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark