Les caryotypes de trois planaires marines nord-américaines : contribution à la phylogénie et à la classification du groupe (Platyhelminthes, Turbellaria, Tricladida)

Abstract

The karyotypes of three species of marine planarians have been studied, this being the first time that karyometric data have been made available for this group. Procerodes littoralis has a diploid complement of 14 metacentric chromosomes. Uteriporus vulgaris and Foviella affinis both have diploid complements of 16 more-or-less metacentric chromosomes. The karyotypes of V. vulgaris and F. affinis are virtually identical and the data support a prior taxonomic decision to remove Foviella from the Procerodidae and to classify it within the Uteriporidae. So little is known of the karyotypes of the Maricola and the Proseriata, and the basic numbers are so varied, that it is impossible to use the karyotype as a prior phylogenetic character, even in the freshwater triclads, which have been so well studied.