Diversity of cryptic Metazoa in Australian freshwaters: a new genus and two new species of sessile rotifer (Rotifera, Monogononta, Gnesiotrocha, Flosculariidae)
Author
Segers, Hendrik
Freshwater Laboratory, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Vautierstraat 29, B- 1000 Brussels, Belgium.
Author
Shiel, Russell J.
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Adelaide, S. A. 5005, Australia.
text
Zootaxa
2008
2008-04-16
1750
1
19
31
https://biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.1750.1.2
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.1750.1.2
11755334
5108444
Pentatrocha
new genus
Description.
Adult females large, sessile, with bulky foot and trunk. Corona large, tilted to dorsally, with distinct cingulum and trochus; antero-medially concave around buccal area. Corona with two pairs of antero-lateral lobes and a single middorsal lobe, all lobes separated by shallow sinuses. A dorsal ovifer present posterior to the cloacal aperture. Gelatinous case amorphous, weakly developed, without exogenous elements. Trophi malleoramate. The single species in this genus is the largest extant rotifer.
Differential diagnosis.
The new genus is characterised by its unique corona morphology, in combination with the presence of an ovifer. The latter feature is shared with
Sinantherina
Bory de St. Vincent
, which has a heart-shaped corona without distinct lobes. Of other
Flosculariidae
, only
Octotrocha
Thorpe
and
Floscularia
Ehrenberg
have a lobed corona. Both
Octotrocha
and
Floscularia
have a corona provided with a large, inverse V- or U-shaped dorsal concave sinus that lacks cilia; a dorsal interruption of the corona is absent or, at best, not discernible in
Pentatrocha
new genus
.
Type
species.
Pentatrocha gigantea
new species
(Monotype)
Etymology.
The name of the genus refers to the autapomorphic feature of the genus, the five-lobed corona (G.,
penta
, five + G.,
trocha
, wheel)