Dugesia punensis, Chinchalkar & Kshirsagar, 2025

Genus: Dugesia Girard, (1850) View in CoL

Dugesia punensis sp.nov.

Material examined:

Holotype ( Fig 1 View Fig :a): ZSI-WRC PL/1 Mature adult

Paratype ( Fig 1 View Fig :b): ZSI-WRC PL/2 . Three paratypes contain mature adults .

All specimens as given in Figure 1 View Fig were fixed in 70% ethanol and deposited in the National Zoological Collections of Zoological Survey of India, Western Regional Centre, Pune, India (ZSI/WRC).

Etymology: Dugesia punensis sp. nov. referring to the type locality in Pune.

Diagnosis: The New species is characterised by the following features: slightly reduced auricles. Spotted appearance. Elongated pharynx and gonopore were observed.

Description: Body size ranges between 8mm- 12mm in length.The dorsal side is spotted dark brown in appearance, with a light brown back. The ventral side looks pale. Eggs are circular and have a reddish appearance. Auricular grooves enclose two bright black eyes.

Habit: Can be reared in the laboratory using purified and de-chlorinated water. High levels of chlorine are toxic to planarians. They refuse to feed upon cooked egg yolk.

Feeds on chicken liver. Can starve for 15-20 days. Show complete regeneration in 10-13 days. Stretched pharynx to grab food.

Molecular phylogenetic analysis: Maximum Likelihood based on COI Sequences was nearly the same. Schmidtea mediterranea and Schmidtea polychroa were used as outgroups, and they show a sister to Dugesia clade with a considerable bootstrap value.

Morphological analysis: (Refer Table 2)

Phylogenetic analysis: (Refer Figure 2 View Fig )

Results show that Dugesia is sister to the Schmidtea clade with considerable bootstrap support. Dugesia punensis sp. nov. is located within the highlighted clade, closely grouped with species of Dugesia adunca ( Chen et al., 2022) , Dugesia notogaea ( Lázaro et al., 2009) , and Dugesia ryukyuensis ( Sakai & Sakaizumi, 2012) . The tree suggests that Dugesia punensis sp. nov. Shares a more recent common ancestor with these species compared to others. The clade containing Dugesia punensis has a bootstrap support value of 73, indicating moderate confidence in the grouping of these species. Branch lengths suggest varying degrees of evolutionary divergence, with Dugesia punensis appearing closer to D. adunca and D. notogaea . The highlighted clade is part of a larger cluster that diverges from other Dugesia species such as D. umbonata and D. sinensis . This implies that D. punensis belongs to a distinct subgroup within the genus, potentially adapted to specific ecological or geographical conditions. The nodes within this region of the tree show values like 68, 71, and 79, suggesting reasonable confidence in the evolutionary relationships.