Kontikia ventrolineata
| Kontikia ventrolineata | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Platyhelminthes |
| Order: | Tricladida |
| Family: | Geoplanidae |
| Genus: | Kontikia |
| Species: | K. ventrolineata
|
| Binomial name | |
| Kontikia ventrolineata (Dendy, 1892)
| |
| Synonyms | |
|
Geoplana ventrolineata Dendy, 1892 | |
Kontikia ventrolineata is a species of land planarian.
Description
[edit]Kontikia ventrolineata has a very dark gray, almost black dorsal color with two narrow lines of light gray that enclose a median dark-gray line of about the same with. There is also a similar light gray line that runs at the border of either side. The venter shows a pair of brownish longitudinal stripes on a gray background. The eyes form a single row around the anterior end and continue laterally to the hind end.[1]
Range
[edit]This flatworm is probably native to Australia, from where it was first described.[2] However, it has been accidentally introduced to several countries, including New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa, Ireland, England, France, Spain, and Italy.[3][4][5][6]
Taxonomy
[edit]Originally described as Geoplana ventrolineata by Dendy, this species was later transferred to the genus Parakontikia as its type-species. Parakontikia was differentiated from the closely related genus Kontikia by the lack of a penis papilla, which is present in Kontikia.[7] However, a later analysis of specimens found in South Africa and England revealed that they matched the description of both Parakontikia ventrolineata and Kontikia mexicana and that both species differed solely by the presence of a penis papilla in the latter, with both color pattern and the internal structure being identical. As a result, both species were synonymized under the new combination Kontikia ventrolineata.[3] However, despite this synonymization, the name Parakontikia ventrolineata is still widely used to refer to this species.[8]
Molecular characterisation
[edit]The complete mitogenome of Kontikia ventrolineata is 17,210 bp in length.[8] and shows a cytochrome c oxidase subunit 2 gene unusually long, a characteristic shared with other members of the subfamily Rhynchodeminae.[8][9]
References
[edit]- ^ Luna, Manuel DE; Boll, Piter Kehoma (2023). "An annotated checklist of terrestrial flatworms (Platyhelminthes: Tricladida: Geoplanidae) from Mexico, with new records of invasive species from a citizen science platform and a new nomen dubium". Zootaxa. 5297 (4): 518–532. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5297.4.3. PMID 37518781.
- ^ Dendy, Arthur (1892). "Short descriptions of new land planarians". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 4: 35–38.
- ^ a b Jones, Hugh D.; Johns, Peter M.; Winsor, Leigh (1998). "The proposed synonymy of Parakontikia ventrolineata (Dendy, 1892) and Kontikia mexicana (Hyman, 1939): What is a penis papilla?". Hydrobiologia. 383 (1–3): 91–96. Bibcode:1998HyBio.383...91J. doi:10.1023/A:1003478218873.
- ^ Álvarez-Presas, Marta; Mateos, Eduardo; Tudó, Àngels; Jones, Hugh; Riutort, Marta (2014). "Diversity of introduced terrestrial flatworms in the Iberian Peninsula: A cautionary tale". PeerJ. 2: e430. doi:10.7717/peerj.430. PMC 4060057. PMID 24949245.
- ^ Sluys, Ronald (2016). "Invasion of the Flatworms". American Scientist. 104 (5): 288–295.
- ^ Mori, Emiliano; Romiti, Federico; Magliano, Adele; Liberato, Claudio DE; Ancillotto, Leonardo (2024). "New alien in town: First record of Parakontikia ventrolineata (Platyhelminthes: Geoplanidae) in Italy". Zootaxa. 5447 (3): 444–448. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5447.3.11. PMID 39645817.
- ^ Winsor, Leigh (1991). "A provisional classification of Australian terrestrial geoplanid flatworms (Tricladida: Terricola: Geoplanidae)". Victorian Naturalist. 190 (2): 42–49.
- ^ a b c Gastineau, Romain; Justine, Jean-Lou (2020). "Complete mitogenome of the invasive land flatworm Parakontikia ventrolineata , the second Geoplanidae (Platyhelminthes) to display an unusually long cox2 gene". Mitochondrial DNA Part B. 5 (3): 2115–2116. doi:10.1080/23802359.2020.1765709. PMC 7510624. PMID 33366939.
- ^ Gastineau, Romain; Lemieux, Claude; Turmel, Monique; Otis, Christian; Boyle, Brian; Coulis, Mathieu; Gouraud, Clément; Boag, Brian; Murchie, Archie K.; Winsor, Leigh; Justine, Jean-Lou (2024). "The invasive land flatworm Arthurdendyus triangulatus has repeated sequences in the mitogenome, extra-long cox2 gene and paralogous nuclear rRNA clusters". Scientific Reports. 14: 7840. Bibcode:2024NatSR..14.7840G. doi:10.1038/s41598-024-58600-y. PMC 10991399. PMID 38570596.