Acotylea (Platyhelminthes, Polycladida) from the southern and western Iberian Peninsula, with the description of five new species

Abstract

Most of the European polyclad species were described after material was collected from the Gulf of Naples, Italy, which was compiled in the renowned monograph of Arnold Lang in 1884. On the other hand, little is known about the diversity of flatworms in the Iberian Peninsula, with 49 recorded species, which are mainly registered in the northern coast of Spain. Moreover, polyclads in Portugal have never been studied before. In our study, specimens of 13 species of acotylean flatworms were collected from the southern and western Atlantic coasts of the Iberian Peninsula. All of the species included here are well documented with colour pictures and histological sections. The geographical distribution of the known species has been updated. Five of the collected species are new to science: Stylochus erytheius sp. nov., S. marimarensis sp. nov., Plehnia cascaisensis sp. nov., Izmira lusitanica sp. nov., and Emprosthopharynx onubensis sp. nov.