Alexei V. Chernyshev

• Dr. Sci.
• Senior Researcher at A.V. Zhirmunsky National Scientific Center of Marine Biology

In the phylum Nemertea, the class Hoplonemertea (former Enopla) comprises the largest number of studied species with complex spermatozoa. Asteronemertes gibsoni Chernyshev, 1991, a nemertean species having a symbiotic relationship with sea stars, is characterized by complex filiform spermatozoa. Here, spermatogenesis and spermatozoon structure in A...

In a recent study by Sagorny et al. (2022), nine new species of deep-sea hoplonemerteans, including five from the new genus Alvinonemertes Sagorny, von D¨ohren, Rouse & Tilic, 2022, have been described from off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica and the Oregon margin. The new species Alvinonemertes tilici sp. nov., found during the research cruise #94...

To date, a total of 30 nemertean species have been described from depths greater than 1000 m. All deep-sea species of the infraorder Oerstediina belong to the genera found at great depths only. A new species of the genus Oerstedia Quatrefages, 1846 (O. sashae sp. nov.), whose described species inhabit shallow waters, has been collected on the Emper...

Philinopsis gigliolii (Tapparone Canefri, 1874) was described under the name Aglaja gigliolii based on preserved material from the Pacific coast of Japan, collected during an expedition of the Italian warship Magenta in 1864-1868. Currently, this species is considered a subjective synonym of P. speciosa Pease, 1860, described from Hawaii, despite t...

Three new species of the monostiliferous hoplonemertean genus Oerstedia Quatrefages, 1864, are herein described using morphological and molecular data—Oerstedia pseudoculata sp. nov., from Akkeshi Bay and Oshoro Bay, Hokkaido, Japan, and from Aniwa Bay, Sakhalin, Russia; Oerstedia rugosa sp. nov. from Sagami Bay, Misaki, Kanagawa, Japan, and Van Ph...

Ribbon worms in the genus Balionemertes from Vietnam, the Philippines, Australia, and Guam-as well as Cephalothrix suni from Vietnam-were examined. Our observations indicate that the worms crawl mostly with their ventral surface upwards (the ventral surface being where the mouth opens), a behaviour that has not been documented in previous literatur...

Nemertean worms in Vostok Bay (Sea of Japan) have been consistently studied over the past 40 years. To date, a total of 54 nemertean species have been identified from this water body (or 68% of all nemertean species recorded from Peter the Great Bay), of which 10 species known for Russian waters have been found in Vostok Bay only. Seventeen species...

Pilidia from the recurvatum group are usually sock-like larvae and include the following types: pilidium recurvatum, pilidium incurvatum, and pilidium prorecurvatum. The origin of these pilidia remains debated.The external morphology, musculature, and the nervous system of pilidium incurvatum from Nha Trang Bay are described using light and confoca...

To date, a total of 23 valid species of heteronemerteans belonging to 15 genera have been recorded in Antarctic and Subantarctic waters. The ribbon worm Heteronemertes longifissa (Hubrecht, 1887) is the only heteronemertean species reported to have bipolar distribution, but this statement is doubtful. The phylogenetic relationships of H. longifissa...

The integument of ribbon worms in the order Heteronemertea is distinct from the integuments in the other taxa of nemerteans due to the presence of a special subepidermal glandular layer, the cutis. Among heteronemerteans, the ultrastructure of the cutis has been studied only in the Lineus ruber species complex. In the current study, ultrastructural...

The genus Parahubrechtia Gibson and Sundberg, 1999 was first described within the family Hubrechtiidae (class Pilidiophora) and subsequently transferred to the family Callineridae (class Palaeonemertea). Here we describe two new species, Parahubrechtia rayi sp. nov. from the Sea of Japan (Russia) and P. peri sp. nov. from the South China Sea (China...

Nemerteans, or ribbon worms, have been reported from intertidal to hadal depths, often showing bathymetrically wide distribution in genus levels. Although current nemertean systematics practices require to provide DNA sequences and infer phylogenetic relationships with suitable molecular markers, previous molecular systematics on nemerteans are mos...

A new species, Parvaplustrum wareni sp. nov. (Parvaplustridae), collected in the area of the submarine Piip Volcano, the northwestern Bering Sea, at depths of 400–472 m, has been described on materials obtained during the research cruises #75 and #82 aboard the R/V Akademik M.A. Lavrentiev. This is the first record of the family in the Bering Sea....

Limpets of the genera Erginus Jeffreys, 1877 (previously in Lottiidae) and Rhodopetala Dall, 1921 (previously in Acmaeidae), unlike other patellogastropods, brood larvae and juveniles in the modified pallial cavity. A phylogenetic analysis using three mitochondrial gene markers (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I, 16S rRNA, and 12S rRNA) has shown that...

With about 480 known species, Pilidiophora (phylum Nemertea) has been regarded as consisting of Hubrechtiiformes (~20 spp.) and Heteronemertea (~460 spp.). Most (~87%) of the latter belong to Lineidae (> 400 spp.), while the systematics of non-lineid heteronemerteans remains largely untouched. To explore the phylogeny of non-hubrechtiiformid, non-l...

The article represents the discovery of Epactophanes richardi Mrázek, 1893 (Harpacticoida, Canthocamptidae) in the uppermost layer of forest soil of the Russian Far East. This record is actually the first publication on the discovery of soil harpacticoids in the Far Eastern terrestrial habitats, although other groups of terrestrial crustaceans (suc...

The ultrastructure of sperm morphology and some aspects of acrosomal complex development were examined in Kulikovia alborostrata, K. torquata, Kulikovia sp., and Micrura bella using transmission and scanning electron microscopy. The studied Kulikovia species have spermatozoa with a bullet-shaped head consisting of an acrosomal complex with a single...

During the research cruises aboard the R/V Akademik M.A. Lavrentyev in 2016, 2018, and 2021 four nemertean species were collected from the bathyal zone of the Bering Sea: Cerebratulus mordukhovichi sp. nov., Lineidae sp. Bering G06, Nipponnemertes cf. rubella (Koryak slope, depths 420–662 m), and Oerstedia sp. (Piip Volcano, depth 783–984 m). These...

In this paper we describe the new genus Aglaona, the first abyssal genus of the family Aglajidae, comprising two new species: Aglaona rudmani sp. nov. from the Sea of Okhotsk (inhabiting a depth of 3206 m) and Aglaona valdesi sp. nov. from the Pacific slope of the Kuril Islands (at a depth of 3374–3580 m). For species descriptions and inference of...

The Kuril Basin and the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench are two interconnected deep-sea ecosystems both located in one of the most highly productive regions of the world’s oceans. The main distinguishing features of these deep-sea ecosystems are the low oxygen concentration in the near-bottom water in the Kuril Basin, and the high hydrostatic pressure in th...

Analyses of molecular data have clarified the phylogenetic relations between classes and orders of the phylum Nemertea as a whole, but the 'deficit' of morphological synapomorphies characterizing main clades remains problematic. Characters identified with classic histological studies of nemerteans reveal a high level of homoplasy, thus complicating...

Analyses of molecular data have clarified the phylogenetic relations between classes and orders of the phylum Nemertea as a whole, but the ‘deficit’ of morphological synapomorphies characterizing main clades remains problematic. Characters identified with classic histological studies of nemerteans reveal a high level of homoplasy, thus complicating...

Tetrastemma Ehrenberg, 1828, is one of the most speciose (~110 spp.) genera within the phylum Nemertea, comprising marine monostiliferans generally having four eyes. Monophyly of Tetrastemma remains open to question, having been tested to date only with 18S rRNA gene sequences targeting 13 species. Here, we examine the clade Tetrastemma with additi...

A higher-level classification of Nemertea has been updated based on insights from recent phylogenetic studies. According to this classification, the phylum includes two superclasses (Pronemertea and Neonemertea), three classes (Palaeonemertea, Pilidiopho-ra, and Hoplonemertea), and eight orders. The order Arhynchonemertea is considered as an incert...

Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is a potent neurotoxin found in many marine and terrestrial animals, but only a few species, such as the ribbon worms of the genus Cephalothrix, accumulate it in extremely high concentrations. The intrabody distribution of TTX in highly toxic organisms is of great interest because it helps researchers to understand the pathways b...

The testis morphology, spermatogenesis, and the spermatozoon structure in two palaeonemerteans, Callinera sp. and Parahubrechtia sp., have been examined by light, laser confocal, and electron microscopy. Early spermatogenesis is quite similar between the two species. The similarities include the formation of the initial proacrosomal vesicle at the...

Continued sampling of the latest Eocene to earliest Oligocene Gries Ranch Formation in Lewis County, Washington State, has yielded new heterobranch microgastropod species. Orbitestella kieli sp. nov., is the third fossil species of this genus and family Orbitestellidae from western North America. Two new species of Ammonicera, A. rolani sp. nov. an...

Marine heterobranch slugs of the order Runcinida comprise 61 species, most of which inhabit the Atlantic Ocean and are referred to the genus Runcina. The Runcinida of the Pacific Ocean have been much less studied to date: only 12 species, from the genera Metaruncina Baba, 1967, Rfemsia Chernyshev, 1999, Runcinida Burn, 1963, Runcinella Odhner, 1924...

The genus Carinina Hubrecht, 1885 has long been considered the most ‘archaic’ nemertean taxon because its members are distinguished by the basiepidermal position of the brain and lateral nerve cords, characters thought to be plesiomorphic for the phylum. Here we describe two new species, Carinina yushini sp. nov. from the Sea of Japan (Russia) and...

The fine structure of mature pseudocnidae of 32 species of nemerteans, representatives of 20 genera, six families, and two classes was investigated with scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Pseudocnidae are composed of four layers (cortex, medulla, precore layer, and core) in most species investigated, but the degree of development and po...

A new nemertean species of the genus Cephalothrix from intertidal calcareous red algae off the Vietnam coast is described based on histological sections, confocal laser scanning microscopy, and nucleotide sequences of three nuclear (18S rRNA, 28S rRNA, H3) and two mitochondrial (COI, 16S rRNA) DNA fragments. Cephalothrix suni sp. nov. is characteri...

A new species of the genus Tetrastemma Ehrenberg, 1831, T. freyae sp. nov., is described and illustrated from Hawaii and India. The description is based on light microscopy examination of the external and internal morphology, as well as on two gene markers (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and histone H3 DNA).

Genes are the determinants and limiting constraints of all the possible features a living organism can display. Genes, however, are largely lineage-specific, and a strict focus on them can lead to an overlook of functional analogies existing between organisms belonging to non-related lineages. In the present concept work we propose that: 1) Ca2+ si...

This article provides an overview of the species composition of the phylum Nemertea in the Far Eastern seas of Russia. The list of nemerteans includes at least 200 species from the classes Palaeonemertea, Pilidiophora, and Hoplonemertea. Many of the species proved to be new to science; most of them remain undescribed. Currently, the use of gene mar...

Nemertea is a phylum of worms with a simple internal morphology; nemerteans' spermatozoon morphology can be used for their classification and phylogenetic analyses. The aim of the present study was to describe spermatozoa of the nemerteans Hubrechtella juliae and Sonnenemertes cantelli from the basal groups of the class Pilidiophora at the ultrastr...

Background: The apical organ is the most prominent neural structure in spiralian larvae. Although it has been thoroughly investigated in larvae of the class Pilidiophora in phylum Nemertea, studies on its structure in other nemertean larvae are limited. Most adult hoplonemertean worms have a frontal organ located in a position corresponding to tha...

New data on the morphological variability and scanning electron micropho-tographs of the following species are provided: Aulographis japonica Nakamura, Tuji et Suzuki, 2013, Protocystis vicina Reshetnjak, 1952, and Haeckeliana megalodonta Resh-etnjak, 1952. Aulographis japonica has been first found in the northwestern Sea of Japan. It is suggested...

Our study focuses on the distribution and diversity of different cephalaspidean species collected from the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench (KKT) during the deep-sea expeditions KuramBioI (2012), SokhoBio (2015) and KuramBioII (2016). Our study recovered several undescribed taxa from different parts of the KKT and the adjacent abyssal plain, belonging to fou...

The benthic and plankton samples collected during the KuramBioII expedition (August–September 2016) along the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench contained 117 benthic and 6 pelagic specimens of nemerteans from seven groups: (1) palaeonemerteans of the family Carininidae; (2) tubulanid palaeonemerteans; (3) lineid Heteronemertea; (4) pelagic Polystilifera; (5)...

The first hadal entoproct, Loxosomella marcusorum sp. n., is described from the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench (45°57′ N, 152°53′ E). It was collected from depths of 6202–6204 m during the German–Russian deep-sea expedition (KuramBio II) aboard the R/V Sonne to the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench region in August–September 2016 (cruise SO-250). The species is up to...

Meloscaphander grandis is a little-known species missing from databases and papers on taxonomic revision and phylogenetic analysis of Scaphandridae. This species is redescribed herein, based on the type specimen and specimens from the abyssal plain adjacent to the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench. A phylogenetic analysis of COI, 16S, and 28S markers show M....

Johanssonia extrema n. sp. was described from a depth of 8728.8 m in the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench. The leech is elongate, up to 58 mm total length. Body is smooth, lacking papillae, tubercles, pigmentation, eyes and ocelli. Suckers are well-developed, eccentrically attached. Lateral pulsatile vesicles are present. Posterior crop caeca are fused. The...

The associations between Cephalotrichella echinicola Chernyshev et al., 2019, and the heart urchin Metallia spp. described here represent the first report on the symbiotic relationship between palaeonemerteans and echinoderms. In addition, it is the first report of a symbiotic relationship between nemerteans and heart urchins, and the third known a...

Knowledge on the detailed body plan in Palaeonemertea (a group putatively considered to retain ancestral character states within Nemertea) is essential in understanding the morphological evolution among not only nemerteans but also the rest of bilaterians in general; however, such information has been scanty in previous literature. In this study, w...

Benthic samples collected during cruise SO250 of the RV Sonne along the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench from three abyssal stations, at depths of 5134–5478 m, and one hadal station, at depths of 7241–7245 m, yielded one ctenostome and three cheilostome bryozoan species. The species encountered represent the deepest records of each genus. The record of Aetho...

About 50 nemertean species have been reported to live in symbiotic relationships with other invertebrates, but only two hoplonemertean species are associated with echinoderms (starfish). The palaeonemertean Cephalotrichella echinicola, sp. nov. is described from samples collected in Nha Trang Bay, Vietnam, South China Sea. The species is the first...

Lineus species are the most abundant nemerteans that inhabit boreal regions of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans and are the focus of many zoological studies. However, its taxonomy and species composition in Arctic areas remain poorly known. In this study, we performed an updated genetic analysis of nemerteans from the “Lineus ruber–viridis” complex,...

The article was published with incorrect scale bars in Figure 2. This correction stands to correct the scale bars for Fig. 2 as follows: a–d, g, j—10 mm; e, f, i—1 mm; h—5 mm; k—3 mm as provided here. The original article has been corrected.

To trace predator‒prey interactions in the marine environment, fatty acids (FAs) were widely applied as qualitative markers. Recently, two tetracosapolyenoic acids (TPA), which are specific markers of soft corals, have been found in the nudibranch mollusk Tritonia tetraquetra collected in the deep waters of the Sea of Okhotsk. This mollusk does not...

Intertidal ribbon worms in the phylum Nemertea live in environments where temperature and salinity can vary widely depending on the tidal fluctuations. Heat shock proteins (Hsps) are expressed by cells in their physiological responses to these changing abiotic factors. To understand the role of Hsps, the presence of Hsp70 and Hsp90 was determined b...

Melanochlamys chabanae Breslau, Valdés et Chichvarkhin, 2016 is reported for the first time from Peter the Great Bay, Sea of Japan. Subadult specimens were collected at a depth of 5-9 m in Vostok Bay. One adult specimen was collected in Peter the Great Bay at 60 m deep. The identification of this species is confirmed by molecular analysis based on...

Melanochlamys chabanae Breslau, Valdés et Chichvarkhin, 2016 is reported for the first time from Peter the Great Bay, Sea of Japan. Subadult specimens were collected at a depth of 5–9 m in Vostok Bay. One adult specimen was collected in Peter the Great Bay at 60 m deep. The identification of this species is confirmed by molecular analysis based on...

A new family Erginidae fam. nov. with the type genus Erginus Jeffreys, 1877 is established based on most basal position of this genus in the family Lottiidae s.l. [Nakano, Ozawa, 2007] and some morphological characters. The family includes two genera, Erginus and Problacmaea Golikov et Kussakin, 1972, with different morphology of the soft body and...

For the first time search for tetrodotoxin (TTX) and its analogues in the extracts of nemerteans using HPLC-MS/MS was performed. TTX analogues were detected in two nemertean species in addition to TTX: 7 analogues were detected in the extract of Cephalothrix simula, 3 analogues - in the extract 11-norTTX of Kulikovia manchenkoi. Presence of 5-deoxy...

The structure of pseudocnidae of 16 species of Palaeonemertea clade Archinemertea (= Cephalotrichida s.l.) was investigated with confocal laser, scanning, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). All species of the genus Cephalothrix possess two kinds of pseudocnidae, large and small. Only one type of pseudocnida is present in Balionemertes and...

The heteronemertean genus Lineus Sowerby, 1806 has been badly in need of revision because of its apparent non-monophyly. In this paper, we focus on Lineus torquatus Coe, 1901, one of the heteronemertean species that occur commonly in waters around the North Pacific, as well as a few other allied species distributed in the western North Pacific, inc...

Based on material from deep-sea expeditions including SokhoBio, KuramBio I, and KuramBio II, five species of ringiculid gastropods were found to inhabit the upper bathyal zone of the Sea of Okhotsk, lower bathyal and abyssal depths of the Kuril–Kamchatka Trench and adjacent waters. Three species are described here as new to science: Ringicula minic...

The Entoprocta fauna still remains almost unexplored: many geographical areas have not yet been studied for their diversity, and almost nothing is known about deep-sea species. We described four new species of solitary Entoprocta from the family Loxosomatidae. The material was collected within a depth range between 3,206 m and 3,580 m during the Ge...

Approximately 90 nemertean specimens were obtained from the material collected by the SokhoBio expedition 2015 in the Kuril Basin of the Sea of Okhotsk and in the Pacific Ocean between the Bussol Strait and the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench. The collected samples included representatives of five nemertean groups: (1) Palaeonemertea; (2) Heteronemertea; (3...

Benthic samples collected at six stations in the Kuril Basin, Sea of Okhotsk, at depths of 3301 to 3366. m, and at two northwestern Pacific stations in Bussol Strait and on the western slope of the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench, at depths 2267 and 3374. m, yielded three cyclostome, two ctenostome, and two cheilostome bryozoan species. Among these, Oncouso...

Hubrechtella ijimai is reported for the first time from South Korea (East China Sea) and China (Yellow Sea), about 260 and 930 km from the nearest locality in Japan. Additional morphological data, confocal laser scanning microphotographs, and DNA data (COI sequences) are provided. This species possesses high intraspecific genetic COI p-distances fo...

Approximately 30 nemertean specimens were obtained from the samples collected with an epibenthic sledge during the Vema-TRANSIT expedition (2014–2015) to the Vema Fracture Zone. A preliminary molecular phylogenetic analysis of eight samples revealed four eumonostiliferan and three tubulanid species. Abyssonemertes kajiharai gen. et sp. nov. and Nem...

This review is devoted to the marine bacterial producers of tetrodotoxin (TTX), a potent non-protein neuroparalytic toxin. In addition to the issues of the ecology and distribution of TTX-producing bacteria, this review examines issues relating to toxin migration from bacteria to TTX-bearing animals. It is shown that the mechanism of TTX extraction...

The fauna of shell-bearing opisthobranch molluscs of Vostok Bay (Japan Sea) includes 10 species of the order Cephalaspidea. The list is based on the specimens collected during 2005–2016. The second part of the paper deals with three species of the families Retusidae (Retusa instabilis Minichev, 1971, Retusa succincta (A. Adams, 1862) and Retusa min...

In August and September 2011, several specimens of Alderia modesta (Loven, 1844) were collected in Baikal Bay (inner bay of the Sakhalin Gulf). This finding is the northernmost record of this species in Russian Far Eastern seas.

Brief report on the nemerteans collected during KuramBio II expedition.

The German-Russian expedition KuramBio II (Kurile-Kamchatka Biodiversity Studies II) with RV Sonne has been performed between 16.8.–26.9.2016 in the Kurile-Kamchatka Trench (KKT) region (SO-250). This expedition follows the Russian-German SoJaBio (Sea of Japan Biodiversity Studies) expedition to the Sea of Japan in 2010, the German-Russian KuramBio...

The paper presents the description of the anatomy and the photos of live specimens of the opisthobranch mollusk Smaragdinella sieboldi A. Adams, 1864 collected in Van Phong Bay (Vietnam). It is the first record of the species from the South China Sea. This species was earlier recorded for the coastal waters of Japan by a short description of the sh...

This paper presents a description of the anatomy and photos of live specimens of the opisthobranch mollusk Smaragdinella sieboldi A. Adams, 1864 collected in Van Phong Bay (Vietnam). It is the first record of the species from the South China Sea. This species was previously recorded for the coastal waters of Japan according to a short description o...

Japonactaeon nipponensis (Yamakawa, 1911) is a rare gastropod species from Far Eastern seas of Russia; it is known only from Sukhodol and Telyakovskogo bays of the larger Ussuriysky Bay (Peter the Great Bay, Sea of Japan). J. nipponensis from Peter the Great Bay differs from Japanese specimens by shell colour and on that ground, Japonactaeon nippon...

A new limpet species, Nipponacmea fuscoviridis (Teramachi, 1949) was found in south-west part of the Peter the Great Bay, Sea of Japan (Troitsa Bay and Furugelm Island). Identification of the species was confirmed by the DNA data (fragments of the genes COI and 16S). Description of this species is given; specimens from Peter the Great Bay differ fr...

Species of the genus Nipponacmea inhabit only the Pacific coast of Asia, including the Russian Far East. Their external morphological characters are highly variable and often lead to misidentifications of species. So far, little research has been conducted using molecular markers. We used sequences from three mitochondrial genes (fragments of cytoc...

Some 260 specimens belonging to 81 nemertean species were collected during Russian−Vietnamese expeditions along the coast of Vietnam. Twelve species are new for Vietnam, including two species (Parahubrechtia kvisti sp. nov. and Tetra-stemma albomaculatum sp. nov.) new for science. Notospermus albovittatus (Stimpson, 1855) comb. n. is restored as a...

A species belonging to the genus Lodderena was found in Guam Island. After comparing it with other species of similar morphology, it zvas found to be new to science and is described here.

Transmission electron and confocal laser scanning (CLSM) microscopies with monoclonal anti-tetrodotoxin antibodies were used to locate tetrodotoxin (TTX) in tissues and gland cells of the ribbon worm Lineus alborostratus. CLSM studies have shown that the toxin is primarily localized in the cutis (special subepidermal layer) of the body wall and in...

This Checklist was prepared from data excerpted from NEMERTES, the nemertean digital knowledge base system. The NEMERTES system is accessible through the NEMERTES website (http://nemertes.si.edu) hosted by the Smithsonian Institution. Making this checklist available through the website will permit it to be updated on a frequent basis as new taxa ar...

Of the 14 nominal species that are now or have ever been assigned to the genus Paranemertes Coe, 1901 , four have been reported to have stylets with a spirally fluted or braided appearance. Although differentiation in color patterns has been documented among species/populations, these nemerteans share similar external characters. Using the sequence...

We studied the ultrastructure of the proboscis endothelium of 14 nemertean species. In all nemerteans examined, the endothelium is organized as a pseudostratified myoepithelium consisting of two types of cells resting on the basal extracellular matrix: apically situated supportive cells and subapical myocytes covered by cytoplasmic sheets of the su...

The proboscis and rhynchocoel musculature of 56 nemertean species was studied using phalloidin labelling and confocal laser scanning microscopy. Six types of muscle layers are found in the anterior proboscis of the nemerteans: inner circular, inner diagonal, inner longitudinal, outer diagonal, outer circular, and outer longitudinal. Only the inner...

Examination of material collected by the German-Russian KuramBio Deep-Sea Expedition to the abyssal plain adjacent to the Kurile-Kamchatka Trench revealed about 17 hydroid species, including two species presumably new to science. Before the KuramBio expedition only fragments of the unidentified hydroids and Cryptolaria sp. were collected in the Kur...

A new species of ctenostome bryozoan, Triticella minini sp. nov., is described from the abyssal plain adjacent to the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench, based on material collected by the Russian-German deep-sea expedition KuramBio 2012. Colonies of T. minini sp. nov. were found attached to the oral spines of irregular sea urchin Echinosigra (Echinogutta) amp...

Recent investigations, based mostly on molecular data, have unraveled the evolutionary history of several common ribbon worm (phylum Nemertea) species and solidified the taxonomic status of many higher taxa within the group. However, a large proportion of enigmatic species have yet to be placed in a phylogenetic framework. We investigated the phylo...

A new species of Bertia collected in southern China is described and illustrated. Bertia hainanensis is characterized by a combination of such features as non-ostiolate ascomata with a roughened tuberculate surface, 1-septate cylindrical-geniculate ascospores, and filiform paraphyses. It is most similar to B. tropicalis, from which it differs by it...