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Andreas Schmidt-Rhaesa (Ed.)The marine ribbon worm genusTetranemertesChernyshev, 1992 currently includes three species: the type speciesT. antonina(Quatrefages, 1846) from the Mediterranean Sea,T. rubrolineata(Kirsteuer, 1965) from Madagascar, andT. hermaphroditica(Gibson, 1982) from Australia. Seven new species are described:T. bifrostsp. nov.,T. ocelatasp. nov.,T. majinbuuisp. nov., andT. pastafariensissp. nov.from the Caribbean Sea (Panamá), and three species,T. unistriatasp. nov.,T. paulayisp. nov., andT. arabicasp. nov., from the Indo-West Pacific (Japan and Oman). As a result, an amended morphological diagnosis of the genus is offered. To improve nomenclatural stability, a neotype ofTetranemertes antoninais designated from the Mediterranean. The newly described species, each characterized by features of external appearance and stylet apparatus, as well as by DNA-barcodes, form a well-supported clade withT. antoninaon a molecular phylogeny of monostiliferan hoplonemerteans based on partial sequences of COI, 16S rRNA, 18S rRNA, and 28S rRNA. Six of the seven newly described species, as well asT. rubrolineata, possess the unusual character of having a central stylet basis slightly bilobed to deeply forked posteriorly in fully grown individuals, a possible morphological synapomorphy of the genus. In addition, an undescribed species ofTetranemertesis reported from the Eastern Tropical Pacific (Panamá), increasing the total number of known species in the genus to eleven.more » « less
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Flaviviruses cause some of the most detrimental vertebrate diseases, yet little is known of their impacts on invertebrates. Microbial activities at the animal-water interface are hypothesized to influence viral replication and possibly contribute to pathology of echinoderm wasting diseases due to hypoxic stress. We assessed the impacts of enhanced microbial production and suboxic stress onApostichopus californicusassociated flavivirus (PcaFV) load in a mesocosm experiment. Organic matter amendment and suboxic stress resulted in lower PcaFV load, which also correlated negatively with animal mass loss and microbial activity at the animal-water interface. These data suggest that PcaFV replication and persistence was best supported in healthier specimens. Our results do not support the hypothesis that suboxic stress or microbial activity promote PcaFV replication, but rather that PcaFV appears to be a neutral or beneficial symbiont ofApostichopus californicus.more » « less
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Biodiversity assessments are critical for setting conservation priorities, understanding ecosystem function and establishing a baseline to monitor change. Surveys of marine biodiversity that rely almost entirely on sampling adult organisms underestimate diversity because they tend to be limited to habitat types and individuals that can be easily surveyed. Many marine animals have planktonic larvae that can be sampled from the water column at shallow depths. This life stage often is overlooked in surveys but can be used to relatively rapidly document diversity, especially for the many species that are rare or live cryptically as adults. Using DNA barcode data from samples of nemertean worms collected in three biogeographical regions—Northeastern Pacific, the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Tropical Pacific—we found that most species were collected as either benthic adults or planktonic larvae but seldom in both stages. Randomization tests show that this deficit of operational taxonomic units collected as both adults and larvae is extremely unlikely if larvae and adults were drawn from the same pool of species. This effect persists even in well-studied faunas. These results suggest that sampling planktonic larvae offers access to a different subset of species and thus significantly increases estimates of biodiversity compared to sampling adults alone. Spanish abstract is available in the electronic supplementary material.more » « less
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