Turbellarian taxonomic database

Convolutidae Amphiscolops Diagnosis


Color through pigments or symbiotic algae; statocyst may be absent; brain insunk; frontal gland weak; mouth ventral; rhabdoids may be absent; posterior as a rule with pronounced posterior lappets; ovaries and testes paired; two genital openings or they may be manifold; seminal bursa with two or more curved or corkscrew-shaped sclerotised bursal canals; copulatory organ complex, conical, pyramidal or tubular; a male antrum and a seminal vesicle may be absent.

[From Winsor L (1990): 795]


Coloured through pigment, concrement, symbiotic algae, or combination thereof (absent in A. japonicus); statocyst usually present (absent in A. oni); ocelli may be absent; frontal organ present (undetermined in A. mosaicus and A. zeii); mouth opening ventrally, without pharynx; brain insunk; posterior end rounded, bilobed, or trilobed, without filaments; ovaries and testes usually paired (testis unpaired in A. trifurcatus); female gonopore absent, or, if present, either single or double (two female gonopores are positioned on either side of a single male gonopore in A. bermudensis); single or double male gonopore ventral, subterminal or terminal; two or more curved or corkscrew-shaped sclerotised bursal nozzles; seminal bursa absent, or, if present, either single or double; male copulatory organ conical or tubular, ciliated, glandular, or both; male antrum and seminal vesicle may be absent; prostatoid organ, sagittocyst and caudal penis fold absent.

[From Ono R, Kajihara H (2025): 1614]


Notes from synonyms

Return to Convolutidae Amphiscolops