Kataplana celeretrix n. sp. (Platyhelminthes: Proseriata: Otoplanidae) from the Coast of North Carolina, USA.

Kataplana celeretrix is described as a new species of proseriate flatworm belonging to the Otoplanidae. This species was found in low-tide-level surface sediments at two high-energy beach sites in North Carolina and is unique among described Otoplanidae in possessing post-pharyngeal germaria. In addition, we consider the intermediate taxonomic position that this new species occupies between Parotoplaninae and Otoplaninae, and point to the utility of confocal microscopy in routine species descriptions. Sediment was collected in October 2010 from the lower mid-tide level (LMTL 0 to 15 cm sample depth), resurgence (“shiny” 0 to 10 cm) and retention (0 to 15 cm) zones of a high-energy beach near Emerald Isle (EI), North Carolina (within 10 m of N34°38’41”; W77°5’22.8”—Type Locality), and from the shiny, swash, and shallow subtidal at a beach near Oak Island (OI), North Carolina (within 10 m of N33°54’46”; W78°13’1.5”) in June 2011. Specimens were extracted from the sand samples, photographed and drawn, processed for Confocal Laser-Scanning Microscopy (CLSM) and resin-embedment/serial-sectioning (Whitson et al. 2011). DNA was extracted from single specimens as described in Whitson et al. (2010) and an approximately 400bp fragment of the 18s rDNA gene was recovered by PCR and sequenced using “universal” 18s primers (Fonseca et al. 2010). Material examined included 5 sets of serial sections, photographs and/or drawings of 15 living, squeezed specimens, and CLSM stacks of 18 whole-mounted specimens. CLSM stacks were rendered with the following colors: Blue: Hoechst 33342 for DNA; Green: Alexa488 phalloidin for muscles; Red: Anti-phosphoH3 for mitotic cells (and artefactual binding to certain glandular secretions); Yellow: Anti-acetylated Tubulin for cilia and flagella. Positions along the longitudinal body axis are expressed as percentage of the body length and given as "U-values", where U0 is the anterior tip of the body and U100 is the posterior end.