The paper describes the new land planarian genus Mapuplana gen. nov. from Chile, on the basis of the two new species Mapuplana guttulata sp. nov. and M. fjordica sp. nov. The genus Mapuplana is mainly characterised by two putative apomorphies: a subneural parenchymal musculature consisting of diagonal decussate muscle fibres; and a blind duct opening sideways into the female atrium. The new species are very similar to each other in their general anatomy and differ only in details in the pattern of dorsal colouration, the relative distance between mouth and gonopore, the relative thickness of the ventral cutaneous musculature, the orientation of the gonoduct, and the shape of the female atrium.

, , , ,
doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2022.2097137
Journal of Natural History
Staff publications

Grau, José Horacio, Almeida, Ana Laura, Sluys, R., & Carbayo, Fernando. (2022). A new genus and two new species of land planarians (Platyhelminthes: Tricladida: Geoplanidae) from Southern Chile. Journal of Natural History, 56(13-16), 947–967. doi:10.1080/00222933.2022.2097137