Abstract
The subfamily Geoplaninae (Geoplanidae) includes land planarian species of the Neotropical Region. In Argentina, the knowledge about land planarian diversity is still incipient, although this has recently increased mainly in the Atlantic Forest ecosystem. However, other regions like Chacoan forests remain virtually unexplored. In this paper, we describe a new species of the genus Notogynaphallia of the Chacoan subregion. This species is characterized by a black pigmentation on the dorsum and a dark grey ventral surface. The eyes with clear halos extend to the dorsal surface. The pharynx is cylindrical. The main features of the reproductive system involve testes anterior to the ovaries, prostatic vesicle intrabulbar (with a tubular proximal portion and a globose distal portion) opening broadly in a richly folded male atrium, common glandular ovovitelline duct and female genital canal dorso-anteriorly flexed constituting a "C",female atrium tubular proximally and widening distally. This is the first report of the genus Notogynaphallia in Argentina (Chacoan subregion, Neotropical Region) which increases its geographic distribution in South America. Also, as a consequence of features observed in species of the genus, we propose an emendation of the generic diagnosis.
Highlights
The subfamily Geoplaninae (Geoplanidae) includes land planarian species of the Neotropical Region
We describe a new species of land planarian, which represents the first land planarian species from this ecosystem in Argentina and the first record of Notogynaphallia in this country
The ecosystem belongs to the Chacoan province, Chacoan subregion (Neotropical Region), which extends through southern Bolivia, western Paraguay, a small portion of southern Brazil and north central and eastern Argentina (Morrone 2000, 2014)
Summary
The subfamily Geoplaninae (Geoplanidae) includes land planarian species of the Neotropical Region. Land planarians are free-living flatworms that live in humid environments They cannot endure desiccation since they have not developed mechanisms for water conservation (Kawaguti 1932). They hide from the sunlight (under fallen logs and leaf litter) and exhibit greater activity at night, predating on soil invertebrates such as earthworms, snails, slugs, insects and arachnids (Negrete et al 2014a; Prasniski and Leal-Zanchet 2009). The genus Notogynaphallia Ogren & Kawakatsu, 1990, as originally proposed, included 23 species which could clearly be distinguished in at least two groups (Leal-Zanchet and Froehlich 2001, 2006; Froehlich and Leal-Zanchet 2003). Species of Notogynaphallia so far have been described for Brazil (over 70 % of the species) and
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