Manunema kuwaitiensis Barnes & Ferrero, 2009, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Barnes, Natalie
name: Ferrero, Timothy John
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2009
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Nematoda
Chromadorea
Plectida
Leptolaimidae
Manunema
Manunema kuwaitiensis

description: Manunema kuwaitiensis sp. nov.
Type specimens: Six males, six females and five juveniles. Holotype male NHM (London) 2007.863 and one paratype female NHM (London) 2007.864 on one slide. Holotype male collected by Alec Moore on 28 February 2003, paratype female collected by Alec Moore on 1 October 2002. Other paratypes NHM (London) 2007.865-874 on one slide. Collected on several occasions between October 2002 and March 2004.
Type locality and habitat: Dawhat az Zarq, west of Al Ad’ami (28° 48.981 N 48° 18.694 E) at 6.7 m depth, shallow subtidal medium sand from the open coast in the Arabian Gulf.
Male Female Juvenile n – number of individuals measured; n/v –not visible; '-' – not applicable.
Also found in medium sand offshore from Mina abdullah (28° 59.982 N 48° 11.193 E) at 9.3 m depth, offshore north-east from Ra’s az Zawr (28° 46.927 N 48° 24.011 E) at 6.0 m depth, offshore north-east from Ra’s az Zawr (28° 48.996 N 48° 30.017 E) at 19.2 m depth, and offshore east from Khiran (28° 40.013 N 48° 29.996 E) at 18.3 m depth. Found in coarse sand offshore east from Khiran (28º 39’ 52.87”N 48º 25’ 37.51” E) at about 10 m depth, intertidally in sloping sandy beach at Shuwaikh (29º 21’ 41.8”N 47º 57’ 19.2”E: see above), and steep sloping coarse sand beach at the northeastern coast of Failaka Island in the outflow of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (28º 25’ 00.0”N 48º 23’ 30.1”E).
Measurements: Table 3.
Description: MALE (Fig. 4): Body small, both ends tapered. Cuticle coarsely striated. Narrow head and trunk region, diameter of body prominently increasing at about 45 % of oesophageal length, maximum body diameter at mid-point of oesophageal bulb, then approximately constant to spicule, then tapering to terminal spinneret.
Labia appearing fused, labial papillae not visible. Four cephalic setae (1.7 hd long), located about 1 hd posterior to anterior extremity. Amphid cup-shaped, small (0.3 cbd), may appear round. Somatic setae about 6.0 µm long, inserted on peduncles 2.9 µm long, anteriormost just posterior to expansion of oesophagus in a ring of four, then two longitudinal rows of approximately equally-spaced pairs of sub-ventral setae alternating with pairs of sub-dorsal setae to cloaca, left-subventral setae absent near cardia and in mid-body region. Pair of lateral setae just posterior to cloaca, followed by paired lateral and subventral setae in mid-tail region.
Buccal cavity unarmed in labial region, narrow cuticularised tube enclosed by cuticularised rings posteriorly. Oesophageal musculature begins as a narrow tube behind buccal cavity, swells into elongate double bulb (55 % of oesophagus length) with thickened lining of lumen. Oesophageal bulb with slight attenuation at nerve-ring, posterior part shorter than anterior (42 % of total bulb) and slightly larger in diameter. Cardia short (3.9 µm). Ventral gland level with cardia, position of anterior pore not seen.
Monorchic, with single outstretched posterior testis. Spicule simple curve (length 2.1 abd, measured as curve), simple gubernaculum bifurcating into small paired apophyses (foreshortened in figure). Single Lshaped precloacal supplement, distal tip curved toward posterior, 5.4 abd from cloaca. Cloaca not extended as tube. Three dorsal caudal gland cells positioned above cloaca, between cloaca and supplement. Simple conical tail 4.8 abd long, terminal spinneret.
FEMALE: (Fig. 5): Similar to male except for round amphids with a break in posterior margin, slightly larger (0.33 cbd), and anal tube clearly protruding from body wall. Vulva at 49 % of body length, small and pore-like, protruding slightly from body wall, faintly striated. Vagina short inverted v-shape, without epiptygmata or sclerotization. Didelphic, but anterior longer than posterior, gonads short relative to body length, outstretched. Supplements absent.
Etymology: Kuwaitiensis, after Kuwait, from whose coastline the species is recorded for the first time.
Diagnosis: Manunema kuwaitiensis sp nov. is most similar to the specimens of M. proboscidis described by Riemann et al. (1971) from Denmark, but differs in that males have only a single L-shaped supplement, which is less slender and positioned more anteriorly from the cloaca. The spicule and gubernaculum are also shorter in both absolute and relative terms and total body length is also less: averaging 324 µm for adult males compared with 401 µm for M. proboscidis. M. kuwaitensis sp nov. also exhibits sexual di-morphism of the amphid shape and lacks a cloacal tube in males, unlike other species of the genus.
description: Published as part of Barnes, Natalie & Ferrero, Timothy John, 2009, Two new species of Manunema (Plectida: Peresianidae) from the Arabian Gulf, with notes on the phylogeny of the genus, pp. 43-58 in Zootaxa 2053 on pages 51-54, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.186631