Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Protostomia
Cladus: Spiralia
Cladus: Platyzoa
Phylum: Platyhelminthes
Subphylum: Rhabditophora
Ordo: Prolecithophora
Familiae (5): Multipeniatidae – Plagiostomidae – Protomonotresidae – Pseudostomidae – Scleraulophoridae
Name
Prolecithophora Karling, 1940
References
He, Y., Zhao, J-Q., Ning, W-R., Zhuang, J-Y., Zhang, Y. & Wang, A-T. 2016. A new species of the genus Bothrioplana (Platyhelminthes: Bothrioplanida: Bothrioplanidae) and a new species of the genus Pentacoelum (Tricladida: Bdellouridae) from southern China. Zootaxa 4179(2): 209–224. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4179.2.2. Reference page.
Links
Prolecithophora in the World Register of Marine Species
The Prolecithophora are an order consisting of an estimated 300 species of small (typically 0.2 – 12 mm, one species up to 50 mm), active, aquatic flatworms. The order lacks a common English name. Most species are shaped like an elongated, stylized droplet, and are opaque white or yellow; they frequently have contrasting bands or spots in colors, such as purple, yellow, red, or brown. They have no to three (normally two) pairs of pigment-cup eyes, and well-developed tactile and chemoreceptor senses. With few exceptions, species are protandric hermaphrodites with internal fertilization. Egg capsules are, according to species, glued to various hard surfaces; the young hatch as miniature copies of their parents.[1]
Ecology
All prolecithophorans are aquatic, with most living in the oceans. Some species, especially those living in freshwater, are predators and scavengers, but many marine species are associated with colonial animals such as bryozoans or live as symbionts on larger animals such as urchins; a few species harbor symbiotic algae. Although most are accomplished swimmers, they normally rarely venture far from the bottom; young specimens are sometimes found in plankton. Many species display positive or negative phototaxis.[2]
Distribution
The majority of prolecithophorans live in the oceans. There are also brackish and freshwater species; in Lake Baikal, an adaptive radiation has resulted in a number of endemic species. The order has a cosmopolitan distribution; most described species are from temperate waters, while little is known about tropical or deep-sea species. This is probably due to a sampling artefact, as prolecithophorans are known to be common in the tropics; when Norén & Jondelius[3] sampled the shore adjacent to Phuket Marine Biological Center, Phuket, Thailand, they found 14 species of prolecithophorans, all of which were new to science.
Families
The following families are recognised in the order Prolecithophora:[4]
Multipeniatidae Karling, 1940
Multipeniata Nasonov, 1927
Plagiostomidae - mainly marine, a few freshwater species (e.g. Vänern, Lake Biwa and Lake Tanganyika)
Acmostomum Schmarda, 1859
Auriculifera Kulinitch, 1973
Hydrolimax Haldeman, 1842
Plagiostomum Schmidt, 1852
Plicastoma Graff, 1904
Puzostoma Marcus, 1950
Torgea Jondelius, 1997
Tuilica Marcus, 1951
Vorticeros Schmidt, 1852
Protomonotresidae Reisinger, 1924 - exclusively freshwater species from Lake Baikal, with one exception
Baicalarctiinae Friedman, 1933
Baicalarctia Friedmann, 1926
Friedmaniella Timoshkin & Zabrovskaya, 1985
Porfirievia Timoshkin, 1997
Protomonotresinae Timoshkin, 1986
Acanthiella Rieger & Sterrer, 1975
Archimonotresis Meixner, 1938
Prorogonophora Riedl, 1954
Protomonotresis Reisinger, 1924
Pseudostomidae Graff, 1904-08 - exclusively marine species
Allostoma Beneden, 1861
Cylindrostoma Ørsted, 1845
Einarhelmins Karling, 1993
Enterostomula Reisinger, 1926
Euxinia Graff, 1911
Gonostomula Westblad, 1955
Monoophorum Bohmig, 1890
Pregermarium Stirewalt, Ferguson & Kepner, 1942
Pseudostomum Schmidt, 1848
Reisingeria Westblad, 1955
Thallagus Marcus, 1951
Ulianinia Levinsen, 1879
Scleraulophoridae Marcus, 1950
Rosmarium Marcus, 1950
Scleraulophorus Karling, 1940
Urostomatidae
References
Karling, T. G. 1940. "Zur Morphologie und Systematik der Alloeocoela Cumulata und Rhabdocoela Lecithophora (Turbellaria)". Acta Zoologica Fennica, 26, 1–260.
Noren M. 2002. Phylogeny and classification of prolecithophoran flatworms. Doctoral thesis at Stockholm University. ISBN 91-7265-478-3.
Noren M, Jondelius U. 2004. "Four new species of the family Plagiostomidae Graff, 1882, (Prolecithophora, "Platyhelminthes") from Phuket, Thailand". Phuket Marine Biological Center Research Bulletin 65:2
"WoRMS - World Register of Marine Species - Prolecithophora". www.marinespecies.org. Retrieved 2021-10-18.
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