Murphydoris maracabranchia Paz-Sedano & Smirnoff & Candás & Gosliner & Pola 2022, SP. NOV.
Creators: name: Paz-Sedano, Sofía
name: Smirnoff, Dimitri
name: Candás, María
name: Gosliner, Terrence M.
name: Pola, Marta
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Mollusca
Gastropoda
Nudibranchia
Goniodorididae
Murphydoris
Murphydoris maracabranchia

description: MURPHYDORIS MARACABRANCHIA SP. NOV.
(FIGS. 2E, 3G, H, 6A–C)
‘ Goniodoridella sp. 4 ’ – Gosliner et al. (2015: 133). ‘ Goniodoridella sp. 4 ’ – Gosliner et al. (2018: 50).
Z o o b a n k r e g i s t r a t i o n: u r n: l s i d: z o o b a n k. org:act: 79EC6092-71AA-4222-9E61-1728A47A142D.
Material examined: Holotype. CASIZ 186120 (Figs 1, 2E) (Philippines, Batangas Province, Maracaban Island, Sepok, 13°41′16.98′′N, 120°49′37.884′′E; coll. P. Paleracio, 25 May, 2011), one preserved specimen, 3 mm long. Paratypes. CASIZ 222056, CASIZ 224657 (Philippines, Romblon, Romblon Province, Logbon Reef). CASIZ 222056. (coll. P. Eschweiler, 3 April 2017). CASIZ 224657 (Figs 3H, 6 A–C) (coll. T. M. Gosliner, 8 March 2018), dissected (SEM: Radula). CASIZ 222015 (Philippines, Romblon Province, Alad Island, 0.0– 0.5 m depth; coll. T. M. Gosliner, 7 April 2017).
Distribution: Papua New Guinea (Anderson, 2015, Gosliner et al., 2015, 2018), Japan (Gosliner et al., 2015, 2018) and the Philippines: Romblon Island, Batangas (Kim, 2021, present study).
Ecology: The species is found on the underside coral rubble (Gosliner etal., 2008, 2015, 2018), from intertidal (present study) to 14 m deep (Anderson, 2015).
Etymology: Murphydoris maracabranchia is named after the shape of the gill (Latin branchia), having the tips wide and rounded, which resemble the musical percussion instrument called maracas (from Guaraní mbaracás).
External morphology (Figs 2E, 3G): Preserved specimens between 3 and 5 mm length. Body limaciform and narrow. Foot tipped at end, rounded at anterior part, with small tubercles in dorsal part. Notal border well developed, reduced and serrated due to presence of spicules. Spicules form small tubercles on dorsal part of tail. Notal border ends in two lateral processes in back-posterior part of notum, one on each side of anal opening. Processes narrow at base, ending in widened, rounded tip. They are likely a modification of the branchial gill (Fig. 3G). Dorsal or lateral papillae absent. Rhinophores non-retractile and smooth, located at anterior part of body. Rhinophoral sheath absent. Mouth displaced towards ventral zone, without oral tentacles. Reproductive opening located halfway up right side. Whole body, including lateral processes, covered by dense network of spicules.
Colour pattern (Fig. 2E): Body uniformly opaque white with tips of rhinophores red or orange. A thin maroon line surrounds body behind rhinophores.
Foregut anatomy (Fig. 6A–C): Buccal bulb muscular. Dorsal buccal pump elongates backwards. Radular sac short descending ventrally. Thin oesophagus originates at posterior end of buccal bulb, behind buccal pump. Nervous system surrounds this area. Oesophageal pump and salivary glands were not observed due to the small size of specimens. Labial cuticle surrounds lips and expands within buccal pump. Radula could not be opened due to the small size. Estimated radular formula 13 × 1.1.0.1.1. Inner lateral tooth large and robust, with masticatory margin bearing denticles (Fig. 6A, B). Outer lateral tooth with two thin and sharp cusps, the upper somewhat longer than lower (Fig. 6C). Base of outer tooth wide and rectangular.
Reproductive system (Fig. 3H): Reproductive system located at anterior-third of body. Thin hermaphroditic duct begins at ovotestis, located inside digestivehermaphroditic gland. Hermaphroditic duct expands in wide, pear-shaped ampulla. Thin post-ampullary duct arises from ampulla and divides into prostatic portion of vas deferens and oviduct. Oviduct enters in female gland mass. Prostate not differentiated, same width as ejaculatory portion. Thin and elongate vas deferens terminates in wide penial sac in most distal part. Vagina wider than vas deferens, connecting with small, rounded bursa copulatrix. Short duct arises from base of bursa copulatrix and divides into two thin ducts; one connects with small, oval receptaculum seminis. Receptaculum seminis slightly smaller than bursa copulatrix. Second duct corresponds to thin and short uterine duct, which enters in female gland mass.
Remarks: Murphydoris maracabranchia is the second white species of Murphydoris described. Murphydoris maracabranchia and M. cobbi have a white body with a brown line behind the rhinophores. However, M. cobbi has small brown spots along the body, whereas M.maracabranchia lacksthese.Inaddition, therhinophores of M. maracabranchia have red to orange tips, while the rhinophores of M. cobbi are entirely white. The gill of M.maracabranchia is narrow at base with a wide, rounded tip, whereas M. singaporensis and M. adusta have several branches arising from same stalk and M. cobbi has wingshaped gill. Murphydoris maracabranchia also differs from other species of Murphydoris in the internal anatomy. It is the only species of Murphydoris without a differentiated prostate. Moreover, the uterine duct emerges in the middle of a duct between the bursa copulatrix and seminal receptacle in M. maracabranchia, whereas in M. adusta and M. cobbi the uterine duct emerges at distal part of the vagina and at the base of the receptaculum seminis in M. singaporensis (Table 3). Molecular analyses support the difference among species (Fig. 1). Moreover, the p -distance for COI between M. cobbi and M. maracabranchia is 21.4–21.9%. The p -distance for 16S is 18.0–18.6% between M. maracabranchia and M. adusta and 17.7–18.6% between M. maracabranchia and M. cobbi (Table 2).
description: Published as part of Paz-Sedano, Sofía, Smirnoff, Dimitri, Candás, María, Gosliner, Terrence M. & Pola, Marta, 2022, Rediscovering the overlooked genus Murphydoris (Nudibranchia: Goniodorididae): the first phylogeny and addition of four new species, pp. 250-269 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 196 on pages 260-262, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlac002, http://zenodo.org/record/7037692