Chordodes staviarskii Carvalho and Feio, 1950

Villalobos, C. De & Zanca, F., 2005, Ultrastructural redescription of Chordodes moraisi (Carvalho, 1942) and Chordodes straviarskii Carvalho and Feio, 1950, and re-interpretation of Chordodes gestri Camerano, 1904 and Pseudochordodes griffinii (Camerano, 1898) (Gordiida, Nematomorpha), Journal of Natural History 39 (8), pp. 597-606 : 600-602

Chordodes staviarskii Carvalho and Feio, 1950

( Figure 2 )

Chordodes staviarskii Carvalho and Feio 1950, p 199 .

Holotype: one female, Rio de Janeiro, Distrito Federal, Brazil, coll V. Staviarskii, 1949 (deposited in the Museu Nacional of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).

Material examined. SEM posterior end and midbody.

Host. Unknown.

Description

Body length is 324 mm with a diameter of 2.1 mm. The anterior end is tapered, a white tip or dark collar is not present. The posterior end ( Figure 2A ) is rounded. The cloacal opening is circular, terminal and surrounded by radiating grooves. There are scattered fine bristles in the area between the radiating grooves and the cuticle of the terminal end. The body colour is dark brown with scattered white patches. The whole body is covered with protruding structures, the areoles. Six types of areole can be distinguished. Type 1 areoles ( Figure 2B, C ) are the most abundant and are slightly oval or circular in shape, they are structured apically (like a blackberry) with diameters of 8–11 mm and about 5 mm high. Among these are scattered areoles with the same shape, but with a tubercle on the top (tubercle areole, type 2; Figure 2B, C ). This tubercle is about 7 mm long and bears a distinct finger-like projection. Type 3 areoles are more elevated than the first two (14 mm), have a rounded apex and occur in clusters of two, three or more over the whole cuticle ( Figure 2B, C ). The areolar types 4 and 5 have filaments on the top and are termed crowned areoles. These crowned areoles occur in clusters of two and are surrounded by 10 or 12 elevated areoles (12–15 mm) of type 6 ( Figure 2C, D ). Type 4 crowned areoles bear moderately short filaments (20 mm) and are distributed over the whole body cuticle ( Figure 2C ). Type 5 crowned areoles have long filaments (108 mm), and occur only on each side along the dorsal and ventral midline ( Figure 2D ). Type 6 areoles have a slightly curved apex and a thin tubercle can be observed in some of them ( Figure 2C ). In the interareolar furrow separating areolar types 1, 2 and 3 there are scattered conical tubercles of up to 9 mm length ( Figure 2B, C ).

Comments

Chordodes staviarskii resembles C. brasiliensis Janda, 1894 , but differs in the areolar groups formed by type 4 and 6 areoles distributed over the cuticle. Carvalho and Feio (1950) described the cuticle of C. staviarskii with four areolar types. Analysis using SEM shows with more precision the differences between areoles, which enables us to increase to six the number of recognizable areolar types.

Figures

Figure 2. SEM of female of Chordodes staviarskii holotype. (A) Ventral view of posterior end with cloacal opening, bristles and radiating grooves (arrow). (B, C) Midbody cuticle: (B) areoles types 1–3 and interareolar tubercle; (C) areoles of type 1–3 and clusters containing types 4 and 6. (D) Areoles type 5 and 6 in the longitudinal ventral groove; b, bristles; t, tubercle. Scale bars: 100 mm (A, D); 10 mm (B); 50 mm (C).