European Journal of Taxonomy
981 (213) - Pages 213-238Little is known about the diversity of free-living nematodes of New Zealand’s continental shelf environments. A preliminary analysis of samples obtained from the continental shelf along the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island revealed the presence of eleven previously described species, which are recorded from this region of New Zealand for the first time. Two of these species were originally described from intertidal sediments, two were described from subtidal or continental shelf environments (5–40 m depth), and seven were originally described from the continental slope (ca 400–1250 m depth). A further three new species, Psammonema buamphida sp. nov., Paramonohystera spinosipsicula sp. nov. and Sabatieria pararticulata sp. nov. are described. Sabatieria pararticulata sp. nov., shares the unusual feature for the genus of having long, jointed spicules with S. articulata Fu, Leduc & Zhao, 2019, which was also described from New Zealand. The presence of this feature, which is otherwise absent in all other species of the genus, in the two New Zealand species suggests that S. articulata and S. pararticulata sp. nov. likely evolved from a common ancestor.
