Advances in Nemertean Biology : Proceedings of the Third International Meeting on Nemertean Biology, Y Coleg Normal, Bangor, North Wales, August 10–15, 1991

In any scientific discipline, meetings with presented papers and discussions are the most effective stimulus to the advancement of knowledge. Nemerteans have long been largely neglected because their taxonomy is difficult: the need for histological study of serial sections has proved inhibiting to most zoologists. During the last twenty years, however, this intriguing phylum has attracted the attention both of increasing numbers of taxonomists as well as of workers interested in many aspects of, for example, their ecology, evolution, physiology and fine structure. The enthusiam stemming from the First International Meeting held in Philadelphia during December 1983 made it abudantly clear that regular meetings of this type should be continued. The Second, at the Tjärnö Marine Biological Laboratory in Sweden (August 1986), emphasized the importance of such international gatherings. The Third Meeting was held in Britain, at Y Coleg Normal, Bangor, North Wales, August 10--15, 1991, with 24 participants from six countries. This volume records most of the papers given at the conference. Front Matter....Pages i-ix Life cycles of nemerteans that are symbiotic egg predators of decapod Crustacea: adaptations to host life histories....Pages 1-14 Nemertea inhabiting the Haploops (Amphipoda) community of the northern Øresund with special reference to the biology of Nipponnemertes pulcher (Hoplonemertea)....Pages 15-28 Aspects of the biology of Pantinonemertes californiensis , a high intertidal nemertean....Pages 29-44 The infestation and dispersion patterns of Carcinonemertes spp. (Nemertea) on their crab hosts....Pages 45-56 Carcinonemertes pinnotheridophila sp. nov. (Nemertea, Enopla, Carcinonemertidae) from the branchial chambers of Pinnixa chaetopterana (Crustacea, Decapoda, Pinnotheridae): description, incidence and biological relationships with the host....Pages 57-80 Ecological studies of the nemertean fauna in an estuarine system of the northwestern Gulf of Mexico....Pages 81-87 Methods of classifying nemerteans: an assessment....Pages 89-101 Phylogeny, natural groups and nemertean classification....Pages 103-113 Major characters and enoplan systematics....Pages 115-140 Observations on the morphology of some North American nemertines with consequent taxonomic changes and a reassessment of the architectonics of the phylum....Pages 141-157 A reassessment of the systematics and a proposal for the phylogeny of some cosmopolitan Lineus species (Nemertea)....Pages 159-168 A proposal for a check-list of characteristics to be used in the descriptions of palaeonemertean species....Pages 169-174 The genus Valdivianemertes Stiasny-Wijnhoff 1923 (Nemertea, Enopla, Hoplonemertea): nomenclatural status and proper systematic position....Pages 175-184 Paralineopsis taki gen. et sp. nov., a littoral heteronemertean from Japan, provided with special proboscideal, circulatory and sensory organs of significance to nemertean systematics....Pages 185-201 Riserius pugetensis gen. n., sp. n. (Nemertina: Anopla), a new mesopsammic species, and comments on phylogenetics of some anoplan characters....Pages 203-218 Enzyme electrophoresis, genetic identity and description of a new genus and species of heteronemertean (Nemertea, Anopla) from northwestern Spain and North Wales....Pages 219-238 Morphological variation in the palaeonemertean Tubulanus annulatus (Montagu, 1804)....Pages 239-246 Evidence for a FMRFamide-like peptide in the heteronemertine Cerebratulus lacteus Leidy....Pages 247-254 Molecular approaches to the study of evolution and phylogeny of the Nemertina....Pages 255-265 The influence of light and sea water temperature on the reproductive cycle of Lineus ruber (Heteronemertea)....Pages 267-271 Patterns of trace metal accumulation in Swedish marine nemerteans....Pages 273-280 Contains the proceedings of the Third International Meeting on Nemertean Biology, held at y Coleg Normal, Bangor, North Wales, August 10-15, 1991. Divided into three sections, the text covers ecology, taxonomy and phylogeny and general biology.