Robbea weberae, Scharhauser & Saavedra & Pröts & Ot & Geier & Gruber-Vodicka & Polikarpov & Bourenkov & Leisch, 2025

Scharhauser, Florian, Saavedra, Daniel E. M., Pröts, Philipp, Ot, Jörg A., Geier, Benedikt, Gruber-Vodicka, Harald R., Polikarpov, Maxim, Bourenkov, Gleb & Leisch, Nikolaus, 2025, Revision of the genus Robbea (Stilbonematinae: Desmodoridae), worldwide abundant marine nematodes with chromophoric Fe-Br inclusions and the description of a new stilbonematine genus, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 203 (1), pp. 1-28 : 7

Robbea weberae sp.nov.

ZooBank registration: http://zoobank.org: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:00CF1524-8B96-40F2-8A40-EC4AEC20BD99 .

Type location: Bay of Sant’ Andrea , Elba, Italy; subtidal sand in 5–6 m depth. Coordinates: 42.808342N, 10.141764 E.

Type material: One holotype ( NHMW-ZOO-EV-M-5866 ), five paratypes male ( NHMW-ZOO-EV-M-5867/1-5 ), two paratypes female ( NHMW-ZOO-EV-M-5868/1-2 ). Collection date: April 2016. Collector: F. Scharhauser.

Other material: Several specimens in J.A. Ott collection.

Etymology: The species is dedicated to Miriam Weber, scientist and our host at the Hydra Marine Station, Elba.

Description: With the characters of the genus. Measurements see Supporting Information, Table S2 .

Large (L> 7mm), extremely slender (a> 200) species, females with much shorter tail than males ( Figures 6 and 7 ). Post-pharyngeal ventral GSO enlarged but not protruding. Cephalic capsule extending over 55–60% of corpus. Corpus about 25% of pharynx length, isthmus 60–63%, bulbus 13–17%. Cuticle extremely finely striated, striae 0.4 µm wide. Vulva strongly cuticularized. Tail conical with rounded tip. Symbiotic bacteria rods, 2.3–2.6X1 µm.

Figures

Figure 6. Robbea weberae sp. nov.. A, pharynx region of male holotype. B, pharynx region of female paratype.. C, tail region of male holotype. D, tail of female paratype. Abbreviations: anus, an; bulbus, b; begin bacterial coat, bbac; corpus, bbac; cephalic capsule, cc; cloaca, cl; cephalic seta, cs; ductus ejaculatorius, de; enlarged glandular sense organs, egso; fovea amphidialis, fa; gut, g; gubernaculum, gb; isthmus, i; subcephalic seta, scs; spiculum, sp; spinneret, spt; testis, t; tail gland, tg.

Figure 7. Robbea weberae sp. nov.. A, anterior end of male holotype, optical section. B, spicular apparatus of holotype. C, anterior end of paratype, surface view. D, vulva, female paratype. E, beginning of bacterial coat, optical section.F, beginning of bacterial coat, surface view.LM of preserved specimens. Abbreviations: symbiotic bacteria, bac; beginning of bacterial coat, bbac; corpus, c; cephalic capsule, cc; cephalic seta, cs; fovea amphidialis, fa; gubernaculum, gb; subcephalic seta, scs; spiculum, sp; vulvar gland, vg; vulva, vu. Scale bars: A–F, 10 µm.