FRESHWATER NEMERTEAN:A NEW SUBSPECIES OF GENUS PROSTOMA

This paper describes a new subspecies of the genus Prostoma Duges,1828,afreshwater nemertean from Qingdao, China.Prostoma eilhardi macradenum subsp.nov.Holotype(DS001),hermaphroditic, about l5 mm long and 0.5 mm wide whenfully stretched,consists of a stained series of longitudinal sections. Paratypes, her-maphroditic,with nine specimens(DS002-010),four of which were longitudinallysectioned. the other five were transversely sectioned. Holotype and paratypes werecollected from Qingdao(36O?4'N,120?9'E).All type specimens are deposited inthe Department of Aquaculture, Ocean University Qf Qingdao.The body size ranges from 6.0 to 31.0 mm long and 0.3 to 0.8 mm wide whenfully stretched. Rhynchocoel is about 2/3 to 4/5 of the whole body length.Theaduits show red to brown vellow in colour,which becomes fainter posteriorly.Thesmall individuals show lighter colour,generally,pale yellow or grey white.The present subspecies is similar to Prostoma graccense(Bohmig,1892)and P. jenningsi Gibson et Moore, 1971, but can be separated by:oesophagus indistinct(rhynchodaeal)and unciliated,rhynchodaeum without longtudinal musculature,pro-boscis nerves nine or ten in the new subspecies.Prostoma eilhardi macradcnum subsp. nov. differs from the nominotypical sub-species P. eilhardi eilhardi(Montgomery,1894)in its voluminous cephalic glandsreaching the brain posteriorly.