Researchers from UCA discover two new species of marine planaria on the coast of Cádiz 26 June 2018
The samples of the animals were taken in various areas, although most of these invertebrates have been observed on the beaches of La Caleta in Cádiz and Punta Carnero in Algeciras
Researchers from the University of Cádiz, belonging to the Department of Biology and attached to the Marine and Fisheries Biology Group (RNM-213), have made a new finding related to a group of marine invertebrates residing in the province of Cádiz. On this occasion, there are two new species of two genera of marine platyhelminthes, that is, two new planarians or flatworms.
These new species, called Parviplana jeronimoi and Phaenoplana caetaria, have been described after the sampling works that were carried out on the eastern Atlantic coasts, specifically on the beaches of Santa Maria del Mar (Cádiz), Sancti Petri (Chiclana), Tarifa, Punta Carnero (Algeciras) and La Caleta (Cádiz), being these last two areas where the greatest number of these species have been detected.
The work, carried out by Patricia Pérez García, Carolina Noreña and Professor Juan Lucas Cervera, has been published in the Marine Biodiversity journal, where it is noted that the description of these two new planaria species “have never before been registered in European marine waters or those of the Eastern Atlantic “.
The Parviplana jeronimoi species was discovered at La Caleta beach, although some specimens could also be found in Santa María del Mar. Specifically, the researchers found this species in the intertidal area, with a rocky substrate. On the other hand, the Phaenoplana caetaria species was collected mostly on the Punta Carnero beach in Algeciras, also in an intertidal zone of rocky substrate.
Bibliographic reference: Patricia Pérez-García, Carolina Noreña, Juan Lucas Cervera (2018) “Two new acotylean flatworms (Polycladida) of two genera unrecorded in the Eastern Atlantic”, Marine Biodiversity https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-018-0900-y