Kirkegaardia Blake, 2016

Blake, James A. & Dean, Harlan K., 2019, New Species of Cirratulidae (Annelida, Polychaeta) from the Caribbean Sea, Zootaxa 4671 (3), pp. 301-338 : 317-320

Genus Kirkegaardia Blake, 2016

Type species: Monticellina heterochaeta Laubier, 1961 , designated by Blake (2016).

Synonym: Monticellina Laubier, 1961 . Junior homonym of Monticellina Westblad, 1953 . Fide Blake (2016).

Diagnosis. (after Blake 2016). Bitentaculate cirratulids with distinct body regions and all setae distally pointed. Pre-setigerous area typically elongate, cylindrical, with short, blunt prostomium and long peristomium with zero to many weakly developed annulations; dorsal tentacles arising on posterior margin of peristomium, anterior to setiger 1. Thoracic notopodia often shifted dorsally, elevated, producing distinct dorsal groove along thoracic region; other species with thoracic parapodia more lateral, leaving broad elevated dorsum; parapodia of middle and posterior region lateral. Middle body segments longer than wide, frequently bead-like; posterior segments wider than long, somewhat crowded, with posterior most segments usually expanded or enlarged. Setae include simple capillaries with fibrils observed under SEM and denticulated capillaries with distinct denticles present along one edge of seta; denticles visible at 400– 1000x; blades usually basally expanded.

Remarks. Blake (2016) established Kirkegaardia to replace Monticellina Laubier , which was preoccupied in the Rhabdocoela. He also reviewed and redescribed all known species and described 16 new species. At present, 38 species are assigned to Kirkegaardia ( Blake & Magalhães 2019) .

In the present study, three new species of Kirkegaardia have been identified in the Carib 1 collections. These newly described species increase the total known species of Kirkegaardia to 41.