Cyerce whaapi, Moreno & Medrano & Gosliner & Wilson & Krug & Valdés, 2025

Moreno, Karina, Medrano, Sabrina, Gosliner, Terrence M., Wilson, Nerida G., Krug, Patrick J. & Valdés, Ángel, 2025, Phylogenetic systematics of the genus Cyerce Bergh, 1870 (Mollusca: Heterobranchia: Sacoglossa: Caliphyllidae) from the Pacific and Indian oceans with descriptions of nine new species, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 204 (1) : -

Cyerce whaapi sp.nov.

( Figs 15D, 17C, 19)

LSID: zoobank.org:act: 678AB90A-3A15-44B6-AA6B-EDCBB 6BA8CE7.

Type material

Holotype: Koumac , New Caledonia, 8 Sep 2018, leg. Koumac 2.1 Expedition (stn. KM301 ), 11 mm preserved length (isolate AV162, MNHN IM-2013-86238 ).

Other material examined

Koumac , New Caledonia, 4 Sep 2018, leg. Koumac 2.1 Expedition (stn. KM200 ), 1 specimen 7 mm preserved length, dissected (isolate AV016, MNHN IM-2013-86240 ); 1 specimen 7 mm preserved length, dissected (isolate AV017, MNHN IM-2013-86239 ) ; 8 Sep 2018, leg. Koumac 2.1 Expedition (stn. KM301 ), 1 specimen 7 mm preserved length, dissected (isolate AV163, MNHN IM-2013-86237 ); 1 specimen 3 mm preserved length (isolate AV165, MNHN IM-2013-86236 ) .

Range

Based on available evidence this species could be endemic to New Caledonia.

Description

External morphology: Body colour beige to light cream ( Fig. 15D). Pericardium elevated, oval, light brown. Anal papillae light brown. Head colour beige with greyish tint. Rhinophores long, translucent white, with white speckling at tips. Cerata inflated, obovate, translucent brown, with faint white vein-like striations throughout; small single white to fluorescent green spot at base of each ceras. Ceratal margin outlined with white specks, faint thin light brown band; submarginally, several large clusters of white specks evenly distributed along margin; margin wavy.

Internal morphology: Pharynx about 4 mm in length; pharyngeal pouch much larger than buccal bulb. Radula with 10 teeth in a 7-mm preserved length specimen (MNHN IM-2013-86239); 3 on descending limb, 7 on ascending limb ( Fig. 19A). Teeth narrow, elongate, slightly bent, about 400 µm in length ( Fig. 19C). Two rows of ~17 short, triangular denticles. Denticle size varies along tooth, smaller at the base, larger as they ascend, significantly smaller at tooth tip. Ascus with about 12 used teeth ( Fig. 19B). Penial stylet embedded in penis ( Fig. 17C), short, curved inward; tip pointed.

Etymology

This species is named in honour of Rocky Whaap of the Tribu de Wanap, Koumac, New Caledonia who participated in various research expeditions and collected important specimens for this study.

Ecology Diet unknown.

Remarks

Species delimitation and phylogenetic analyses all supported Cyerce whaapi sp. nov. as a candidate species sister to C. elegans and distinct from other complex members ( Fig. 1B; Table 3). Morphologically, C. whaapi sp. nov. could be distinguished from C. elegans by having cerata that were slightly more inflated and with faint white vein-like striations extending from the white clusters along the ceratal margin. The colour of the spot at the base in C. whaapi sp. nov. ranges from fluorescent green to light brown but was fluorescent blue to green in C. elegans .

The description of C. elegans var. by Bergh (1888) closely resembles C. whaapi sp. nov., having translucent light-brown cerata with white vein-like striations and white clusters along the margin. However, the vein-like striations in C. whaapi sp. nov. are fainter and do not extend towards the middle of the cerata as observed in the illustration by Bergh (1888: pl. 77, fig. 6) and the specimens of Cyerce basi sp. nov. here examined. The penial stylet and radular morphology of our specimens of C. whaapi sp. nov. also closely resembles the specimen described by Bergh (1888).

Phylogenetic analyses recovered all specimens of C. whaapi sp. nov. in an unsupported clade, but all species delimitation analyses confirmed C. nigricans is a distinct species as indicated above.

Clade 4