Prostoma puteale, Beauchamp, 1932

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 : 471

21. puteale Beauchamp, 1932

Source. As a variety, Prostoma clepsinoides var. putealis [sic] by Beauchamp (1932: 269, fig. 1).

Type locality. A well in Illkirch-Graffenstaden , France, in the ground water layer of the alluvium of the Rhine near Strasbourg ( Fig. 9 ) .

Etymology. Adjective, pUteālis, -is, -e, meaning “pertaining to well”; from the masculine noun, puteus, “pit, dungeon; well; cistern”, and the suffix - ālis, forming adjective of relationship from nouns or numerals.

Remarks. One of three stygobiontic nominal Prostoma species. Beauchamp (1932) considered this eyeless form a variety of P. clepsinoides Dugès, 1828 . Before 1985, however, subsequent researchers (e.g., Stiasny-Wijnhoff 1938: 225; Gibson & Moore 1976: 198) regarded the taxon as a distinct species due to its remarkable characteristics (e.g., pure white body colour, without eyes) compared with other epigean species (mostly reddish body, with four to six eyes), and referred to it as Prostoma puteale . The name puteale is thus an available species-group name in accordance with Article 45.6.4.1, which states, “a name that is infrasubspecific under Article 45.6.4 is nevertheless deemed to be subspecific from its original publication if, before 1985, it was either adopted as the valid name of a species or subspecies or was treated as a senior homonym”. Prostoma puteale has been regarded as a valid taxon by subsequent researchers (e.g., Stiasny-Wijnhoff 1938: 226; Gibson & Moore 1976: 198; Gibson 1995: 497; Chernyshev et al. 1998: 61; Sundberg & Gibson 2008: 62).

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).