Redescription of Valdivianemertes valdiviae (Bürger, 1909) (Nemertea: Hoplonemertea: Cratenemertidae) and designation of neotype

Abstract

A century ago Bürger described the species Drepanophorus valdiviae from a single specimen taken from 155 m off the southern tip of Africa by the research vessel Valdivia during the German Deep Sea Expedition. Stiasny-Wijnhoff in 1923 transferred this species along with Amphiporus stannii (sensu Bürger 1895) to a new genus Valdivianemertes but did not mention a family affiliation. In 1993 Crandall transferred this genus to the family Cratenemertidae. During the Spanish Antarctic Expedition BENTART 2003, carried out on board the RV Hespérides, we found one specimen identified with certainty as Valdivianemertes valdiviae, at 602 m depth in the Bellingshausen Sea (Antarctica). As there is no extant holotype, we here redescribe this species from this new specimen and designate it the neotype of this species; photomicrographs of the different regions of the body and the proboscis structure are provided for the first time.

Keywords:

• Amphiporus valdiviae
• Valdivianemertes valdiviae
• Cratenemertidae
• Antarctic
• Bellingshausen Sea

Acknowledgements

The BENTART 2003 cruise was supported by the Antarctic Programme REN2001-1074/ANT of the Spanish Government. We are grateful to Dr Ana Ramos, leader of BENTART's projects and our colleagues from BENTART cruise 2003 and to the crew and officers of the RV Hespérides. Thanks are due to S. Sagawe for assistance with some translations from German. N.A. would like to thank C.X. Lastra for assistance and for linguistic review of the text of an earlier draft of the manuscript.

Notes

All figures can be viewed in colour online.