Phascolion kamchatikus sp. nov., the first interstitial sipunculan (Sipuncula, Phascolionidae) from the Pacific Ocean

Abstract

A new species of meiobenthic sipunculan, Phascolion kamchatikus sp. nov. collected from coarse sand and shell hash in shallow waters in the northwestern Pacific, is described and illustrated using light and electron microscopy. This new species is well distinguished from all other congeners by a unique combination of main taxonomic characters. This is the only sipunculan having only two primary tentacles in both juvenile and sexually mature worms. There are no hooks and holdfast papillae in the adult stages. Because of the presence of three nearly equal in size retractor muscles forming a retractor column divided for most of its length, this species is assigned to the subgenus Isomya of the genus Phascolion. Unlike most other species of the genus Phascolion, P. kamchatikus sp. nov. has an interstitial mode of life moving among the coarse sand grains and shell hash accumulated between rocks and stones in shallow water areas alongside the Pacific coast of Kamchatka, Aleutian Islands and Alaska Peninsula. Phascolion kamchatikus sp. nov. constitutes the only third interstitial species of the phylum Sipuncula. This is also the ninth species of Phascolion in the northwestern Pacific and the first interstitial representative of this genus in the Pacific Ocean.