Prostoma jenningsi, Gibson & Young, 1971

Kajihara, Hiroshi, 2025, A taxonomic revision of the freshwater monostiliferous hoplonemertean genus Prostoma Dugès, 1828 (Nemertea: Eumonostilifera): a radical solution or an over-lumping?, Zootaxa 5646 (4), pp. 451-500 : 468

12. jenningsi Gibson & Young, 1971

Source. In the binomen Prostoma jenningsi by Gibson & Young (1971: 122, text-fig. 1, pl. 1, figs a–d).

Type locality. Marginal vegetation and among mud between plant roots and basal leaves in a pond near Croston, Lancashire, England ( Fig. 9 ) .

Etymology. Masculine noun in the genitive singular; after Joseph B. Jennings at the University of Leeds, a former teacher of the first author, Raymond Gibson, “to mark his contributions to the field of invertebrate digestive physiology” ( Gibson & Young 1971: 122).

Remarks. Prostoma jenningsi has been regarded as a valid taxon by subsequent researchers ( Gibson & Moore 1976: 203; Gibson 1995: 496; Chernyshev et al. 1998: 61; Sundberg & Gibson 2008: 62). However, an extensive survey of the type locality and its vicinity failed to find any individuals genetically distinct from other worldwide forms, suggesting that P. jenningsi would be a junior synonym of older-established species ( Quigg et al. 2020). It is now synonymised with P. clepsinoides .

Figures

FIGURE 9. World map showing distribution of 25 nominal species of freshwater monostiliferous hoplonemerteans indicated by boxes and respective species-group names (three subterranean species are indicated with ‘S’ in parentheses); circles, diamond, and triangles indicate localities of DNA-barcoded individuals; circles, Haplogroup 1 from the UK, Sweden (SE), Italy (IT), Macedonia (MK), Japan (JP), New Zealand (NZ), Mexico (MX), Indiana (IN), and Massachusetts (MA); diamond, Haplogroup 2 from Norway (NO); triangles, Haplogroup 3 from Sweden (SE) and California (CA).