Enchodelus macrodorus Thorne 1939

Enchodelus macrodorus (de Man, 1880) Thorne, 1939

(Fig. 5)

MEASUREMENTS

See Table 1.

REMARKS

The morphometrics of the Iranian population are within the accepted values for the species as stated by Guerrero et al. (2008a), with only a small broadening of some measurement ranges such as odontophore length (46-57 vs 42-55 µ m), body diam. (68-92 vs 56-86 µ m; a = 17-24 vs 19-32) and tail length (17-23 vs 22-37 µ m; cļ = 0.4-0.6 vs 0.5-0.7). The following features have been considered of special relevance when comparing this species with E. babakicus n. sp.: i) labial constriction absent vs present; ii) vulva strikingly more anterior (V = 41.5-44.5 vs 44- 49); iii) slightly shorter uterus (119-149 vs 130-175 µ m or 1.6-2.2 vs 1.9-2.5 times corresponding body diam.); iv) males not found vs common (all Enchodelus males found in the sample had a lip morphology typical of E. babakicus n. sp. which had a sex ratio of 1.23 females per male). This evidence supports the suggestion by Guerrero et al. (2008a) that E. macrodorus males are very rare. In that study, 30 records of E. macrodorus were analysed, 12 of these being considered as reasonably confirmed although only three reported the presence of males. Detailed descriptions of E. macrodorus males are not available in the literature and there are no data on important measurements, such as spicule length, which could support a more accurate diagnosis.

Individuals identified as E. macrodorus were collected from the same sample as E. babakicus n. sp. and represent the first report of this species from Iran.