Chordodes kakandensis Sciacchitano, 1958

Villalobos, C. De, Zanca, F. & Schmidt-Rhaesa, A., 2009, Revision of the genus Chordodes (Gordiida: Nematomorpha) from Africa IV. Ultrastructural redescription of Chordodes congolensis Sciacchitano, 1933, Chordodes ferox Camerano, 1897, Chordodes madagascariensis (Camerano, 1893), Chordodes mobensis Sciacchitano, 1958 and reinterpretation of Chordodes maculatus Sciacchitano, 1958 and Chordodes kakandensis Sciacchitano, 1958, Journal of Natural History 43 (41 - 44), pp. 2579-2595 : 2592

Chordodes kakandensis Sciacchitano, 1958

( Figure 7 ) Chordodes kakandensis Sciacchitano, 1958, p. 37 , figures 30–32.

Holotype

One ♀, Democratic Republic of the Congo Lualaba : Kakanda (Tanganika, Moba) ( Sciacchitano 1958) ( AMT 29888).

Material examined

SEM mid-body: Holotype.

Host

Unknown.

Description

Holotype: body colour light brown. Anterior end narrows slightly towards apex with white calotte. Posterior end undivided, cloacal opening terminal.

Body cuticle includes five types of areoles ( Figure 7A, B ). Simple areoles round or oval with warty surface with or without minute bristles on top. Tubercle areoles and thorn areoles present ( Figure 7B ). Clusters of two crowned areoles surrounded by 12–16 circumcluster areoles with minute bristles at the apex. Crowned areoles highly elevated above cuticular surface, with apical ring of filaments. Along ventral midline there is another type of crowned areoles with very long filaments (up to 135 µm) ( Figure 7C ).

Dimensions

Measurement of the specimen investigated: 180 mm long and 1 mm wide ( Sciacchitano 1958).

Comments

Sciacchitano (1958) described Chordodes kakandensis on the basis of one female specimen. He mentioned and drew three areolar types, corresponding to simple, thorn and clusters of crowned and circumcluster areoles from our investigation. From the SEM reinvestigation, we distinguished another type of areole, the tubercle areoles. The same cuticular pattern is present in Chordodes schoutedeni ( Sciacchitano 1933; Zanca, Schmidt-Rhaesa et al. 2006) and we therefore regard C. kakandensis as a synonym of C. schoutedeni . In this study we observed a new characteristic of the female of C. schoutedeni that has never been described before: along the ventral furrow there are crowned areoles with long filaments.

Figures

Figure 7. Chordodes kakandensis (holotype). (A) Overview of the midbody cuticle; (B) thorn and tubercle areoles; (C) midline of the body showing crowned areoles with long filaments. Scale bars: 20 µm (A), 10 µm (B), 50 µm (C).