ABSTRACT
The order Nemertodermatida Karling 1940, a small group of, currently, ten to eleven described marine species, has long been the subject of debate regarding its basal phylogenetic position in the Platyhelminthes. The first record of a nemertodermatid was published by Einar Westblad (1926), who reported collecting specimens of Meara stichopi in Norway in 1923. The species had by then already been discovered and informally named by Sixten Bock. However, the formal description of M. stichopi was published much later by Westblad (1949), after Bock's death. In the summer of 1927, Otto Steinböck and Erich Reisinger extracted a single small worm from mud dredged off the east coast of Greenland. On this specimen Steinböck (1931) based his description of Nemertoderma bathycola. A more thorough description of another species, subsequently named N. westbladi by Steinböck (1938), was given by Westblad (1937). Initially placed within the Acoela, the group was given suborder status by Karling (1940) and full order status by Ax (1961). New descriptions of species and genera were presented by Sterrer (1966, 1970; N. psammicola), Faubel and Dörjes (1978; Flagellophora apelti) and Riser (1987; Nemertinoides elongatus). In his revision of the Nemertodermatida, Sterrer (1998) also introduced the new genus Ascoparia (A. neglecta, A. secunda) and the new family Ascopariidae. Lundin (2000) made a cladistic analysis of the order and referred the species Nemertoderma psammicola to the new genus Sterreria.
