Anguillosyllis Day, 1963

Barroso, Rômulo, Paiva, Paulo Cesar De, Nogueira, João Miguel De Matos & Fukuda, Marcelo Veronesi, 2017, Deep sea Syllidae (Annelida, Phyllodocida) from Southwestern Atlantic, Zootaxa 4221 (4), pp. 401-430 : 421

Genus Anguillosyllis Day, 1963

Type species. Anguillosyllis capensis Day, 1963 .

Diagnosis. Body of relatively small size, with few chaetigers. Palps elongated, at least partially fused for most of their length. Prostomium with 3 antennae; eyes absent. Peristomium with 1 pair of ovate to digitiform peristomial cirri. Dorsal cirri smooth, long, filiform, frequently coiled over dorsum, absent on chaetiger 2. Ventral cirri digitiform, inserted medially to distally in parapodial lobes. Parapodial lobes relatively long, with pre- and postchaetal lobes. Compound chaetae heterogomph, with unidentate, slender blades. Pharyngeral tooth absent. Reproduction unknown ( Aguado & San Martín 2008).

Remarks. Anguillosyllis was recently redefined by Aguado & San Martín (2008), who recognized Braniella Hartman, 1965 as a junior-synonym and redescribed 2 of the 3 known species, all restricted to the deep sea. Aguado & San Martín (2008) considered three valid species in this genus, A. pupa ( Hartman, 1956) , A. palpata and A. capensis . We describe herein an additional species, A. lanai sp. nov., from material from off southeastern Brazil, raising to four the number of known species in this genus.

All the species in this genus are quite similar to each other, differing mostly by the morphology of palps, presence/absence of dorsal cirri on chaetiger 2, details on the structure of the parapodial lobes, length of the blades of compound chaetae, and presence of parapodial glands. Also, the number of chaetigers in adults seems to be constant for each species, which is not a common feature for syllids. With the amendment to the description of A. palpata proposed herein (see below), it is possible that ‘absence of dorsal cirri on chaetiger 2’ should also be included in the diagnosis of the genus; the only exception being A. capensis , originally described as with dorsal cirri on all chaetigers ( Day 1963), but the holotype of that species is currently in terrible shape, preventing confirmation of that character. Also, further descriptions of A. capensis do not bring clear statements on the matter, but the absence of dorsal cirri on chaetiger 2 is suggested by images (see Böggemann & Purschke 2005, Fig. 1 ; Aguado & San Martín 2008, Fig. 1 ).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Exogone anomalochaeta. (A) anterior body, dorsal view; (B – C) falcigers, anterior and mid- to posterior body chaetigers, respectively; (D, H) aciculae, anterior and posterior body chaetigers, respectively; (E – F) dorsal simple chaetae, anterior and posterior body chaetigers, respectively; (G) ventral simple chaeta.