Two new species of free-living marine nematodes of the family Oxystominidae Chitwood, 1935 (Enoplida) with a review of the genus Thalassoalaimus de Man, 1893 from the Argentine coast
Author
Martelli, Antonela
Author
Russo, Virginia Lo
Author
Villares, Gabriela
Author
Pastor De Ward, Catalina T.
text
Zootaxa
2017
4250
4
347
357
journal article
33288
10.11646/zootaxa.4250.4.5
f96392dc-e97b-41db-9607-31cf6cd2d050
1175-5326
495299
F15232E9-A0DF-4A72-94EE-40ACB7277A3C
Thalassoalaimus
de
Man, 1893
, emended diagnosis
Oxystominidae
,
Oxystomininae
. Labial sensilla setiform, in circles of six inner and four or six outer on the anterior end. A circle of four cephalic setae more posteriorly. Amphideal fovea large and pocket-shaped. Males usually have papilliform precloacal supplements. Tail conical or conico-cylindrical. Thick cuticular lining, also called the caudal capsule, at the tail tip. Marine.
Type species:
T. tardus
de
Man, 1893
(8 species).
Remarks.
As was pointed out by
Tchesunov
et al.
(2014)
, the family
Oxystominidae
has two morphologically similar genera,
Litinium
and
Thalassoalaimus
. In their emended diagnosis of
Litinium
,
one of the most important characters defining the genus is the absence of a caudal capsule. Hence, many putative species of
Thalassoalaimus
seem to be placed in the wrong genus because they have more characters of
Litinium
than of
Thalassoalaimus
. We present here revised species lists for both genera along with a list of
species inquirendae
for
Thalassoalaimus
.