First record of Baseodiscus mexicanus (Bürger, 1893) (Nemertea: Heteronemertea) from Japanese waters

Hiroshi Kajihara; Ryuta Yoshida; Daisuke Uyeno

doi:10.15560/8.4.754

Check List 8(4): 754-755, doi: 10.15560/8.4.754

First record of Baseodiscus mexicanus (Bürger, 1893) (Nemertea: Heteronemertea) from Japanese waters

Hiroshi Kajihara, Ryuta Yoshida, Daisuke Uyeno

Corresponding author: Hiroshi Kajihara ( kazi@mail.sci.hokudai.ac.jp )

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Citation: Kajihara H, Yoshida R, Uyeno D (2012) First record of Baseodiscus mexicanus (Bürger, 1893) (Nemertea: Heteronemertea) from Japanese waters. Check List 8(4): 754-755. https://doi.org/10.15560/8.4.754

Abstract

The heteronemertean Baseodiscus mexicanus (Bürger, 1893) was previously known exclusively from the eastern Pacific, except for fragmentary records from Palau and Indonesia, which suggested a possible amphi-Pacific tropical distribution. A single specimen of B. mexicanus collected in Okinawa, Japan, represents the first record of this species from Japanese waters and provides additional evidence for the occurrence of the species in the western Pacific. Baseodiscus mexicanus is strikingly similar in appearance to a sympatric moray eel, Gymnomuraena zebra (Shaw, 1797) (Actinopterygii: Anguilliformes: Muraenidae), possibly indicating a relationship of mimicry between them.

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