Polycladus

Polycladus
Polycladus gayi
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Platyhelminthes
Class: Turbellaria/Rhabditophora
Order: Tricladida
Suborder: Continenticola
Family: Geoplanidae
Subfamily: Geoplaninae
Genus: Polycladus
Blanchard, 1845
Type species
Polycladus gayi
Blanchard, 1845

Polycladus is a genus of land planarians from South America, currently comprising a single species, Polycladus gayi.

Description

Polycladus is a very understudied genus of land planarians. It was defined as land planarians with a wide, flat and leaf-like body, having the entire ventral surface ciliated and with mouth and gonopore posteriorly shifted in relation to other land planarians. The copulatory apparatus has a well-developed permanent penis and the female canal enters the genital antrum ventrally.[1] This definition, however, is incomplete regarding all anatomical structures currently considered in the definition of planarian genera.[2]

References

  1. Ogren, R. E. and Kawakatsu, M. (1990). Index to the specis of the family Geoplanidae (Turbellaria, Tricladida, Terricola) Part I: Geoplaninae. Bulletin of Fujis Women's College. 29: 79-166.
  2. Carbayo, F.; Álvarez-Presas, M.; Olivares, C. U. T.; Marques, F. P. L.; Froehlich, E. X. M.; Riutort, M. (2013). "Molecular phylogeny of Geoplaninae (Platyhelminthes) challenges current classification: Proposal of taxonomic actions". Zoologica Scripta 42 (5): 508. doi:10.1111/zsc.12019.
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