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Traumatic mating, that is, copulation that involves wounding the partner's body, is a widespread phenomenon that is particularly prevalent in hermaphroditic animals. Traumatic mating is generally a collateral side effect of diverse strategies (from physical anchorage to injection of substances to manipulate the partner), but the trauma could also be adaptive by itself if it delays remating by the injured partner. In the Tricladida (the clade of planarian flatworms), reciprocal sperm transfer is often assumed to occur by means of a 'regular' nontraumatic copulation, that is, insertion of the penis through the partner's gonopore and deposition of the ejaculate into its genital atrium, with subsequent sperm migration to the oviducts. However, while studying the anatomy of Brazilian land planarians for taxonomic purposes, we found foreign bodies, reminiscent of spermatophores, implanted within the parenchyma of Choeradoplana albonigra (Riester, 1938). Herein, we describe and illustrate several lines of morphological evidence indicating that these foreign bodies likely represent a novel case of intragenital copulatory wounding (e.g., structural and histochemical similarity to land planarians spermatophores; implantation at the level of the gonopore; vestiges of rupture of the genital atrium's wall), corroborating that traumatic mating is pervasive and underreported in Metazoa. We also propose two different hypotheses to explain such copulatory wounding, viz., that it concerns (1) a regular mating strategy or (2) an accidental effect of the copulation. In any event, this land planarian may prove useful as a novel, noninsect terrestrial model organism to investigate the evolution of traumatic mating.

The land planarians in the genus Obama include the largest species of the Neotropical Geoplaninae. Morphological discrimination of Obama species can be difficult, as many species are morphologically similar and some present asymmetric – difficult to interpret – copulatory organs. New techniques are thus welcomed to provide faster species description and identification. Here, we study several specimens of Obama by means of mainly 2D and 3D μCT-based images obtained through X-ray microcomputed tomography (μCT) of a paratype, and, complementarily, histological sections of the holotype and a second paratype, which were digitized into virtual slides. Comparison of these images with traditional histological sections and descriptions of the known species of the genus allows us to conclude that our specimens constitute a new species, which we describe here. We further evaluate the phylogenetic placement of the new species using gene fragments from the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and the nuclear elongation factor-1α. Raw and derivative μCT data and virtual histological sections were deposited in an open repository (GigaDB) and are freely available. This work leads us to conclude that μCT constitutes a relatively fast, inexpensive non-destructive method that produces results comparable to those of traditional histology, and is thus amenable for describing flatworm species.

A new species, Geoplana valdiviana sp. n. (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida), from southern Chile is described. The species is characterized by having the cutaneous musculature ventrally reaching up to the central nervous system, the parenchymal muscle layers gathered in bundles, a penis papilla with the dorsal insertion anterior to the ventral insertion, shell glands opening only into the common glandular duct, and oviducts greatly widened in their ascending portion. The two former features are also present in Geoplana chanca and Pasipha ercilla, and might be an evidence of close phylogenetic relationship between them. (© 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

The Brazilian Atlantic Forest is one of the richest biodiversity hotspots of the world. Paleoclimatic models have predicted two large stability regions in its northern and central parts, whereas southern regions might have suffered strong instability during Pleistocene glaciations. Molecular phylogeographic and endemism studies show, nevertheless, contradictory results: although some results validate these predictions, other data suggest that paleoclimatic models fail to predict stable rainforest areas in the south. Most studies, however, have surveyed species with relatively high dispersal rates whereas taxa with lower dispersion capabilities should be better predictors of habitat stability. Here, we have used two land planarian species as model organisms to analyse the patterns and levels of nucleotide diversity on a locality within the Southern Atlantic Forest. We find that both species harbour high levels of genetic variability without exhibiting the molecular footprint of recent colonization or population expansions, suggesting a long-term stability scenario. The results reflect, therefore, that paleoclimatic models may fail to detect refugia in the Southern Atlantic Forest, and that model organisms with low dispersal capability can improve the resolution of these models.

Two new species of terrestrial planarians in the family Geoplanidae, Geoplana franciscana and Notogynaphallia guaiana, from the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, are described. Both species have a multilayered lining in the female atrium. The study of specimens of N. goetschi, aimed at comparing it to N. guaiana, reveals the need for a re-description and review of N. goetschi.