A New Species of Bathyal Nemertean, Proamphiporus kaimeiae sp. nov., off Tohoku, Japan, and Molecular Systematics of the Genus (Nemertea: Monostilifera)

Abstract

The monostiliferous hoplonemertean Proamphiporus kaimeiae sp. nov. is described based on a single specimen collected from the bottom of the Northwest Pacific, 262 m deep, off Tohoku in Japan, by use of a remotely operated vehicle during a cruise organized by Tohoku Ecosystem-Associated Marine Sciences (TEAMS) research project in 2019. The position of the cerebral organs in the new species, being posterior to the proboscis insertion, is unusual for Eumonostilifera, which is one of the diagnostic traits of the so-far monospecific Proamphiporus Chernyshev and Polyakova, 2019, and Amphiporus rectangulus Strand, Herrera-Bachiller, Nygren, and Kånneby, 2014. The latter is herein transferred to Proamphiporus to yield a new combination, Proamphiporus rectangulus comb. nov., based on the reported internal morphology. Molecular phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA, cytochrome c oxidase subunit I, 18S rRNA, 28S rRNA, and histone H3 genes placed P. kaimeiae in a clade comprised of Proamphiporus crandalli Chernyshev and Polyakova, 2019 and Proamphiporus rectangulus.