Saphobranchia Chamberlin, 1919

Salazar-Vallejo, Sergio I., 2020, Four new deep-water flabelligerid species from Pacific Costa Rica (Annelida Sedentaria, Flabelligeridae), Zootaxa 4885 (4), pp. 560-578 : 567-568

Key to species of Saphobranchia Chamberlin, 1919 reinstated

(Modified from Salazar-Vallejo & Buzhinskaja 2011)

1 Body tunic without sand particles, or with a few sand and fine particles.......................................... 2

– Body tunic with sand particles; median chaetigers with 7–8 notochaetae per bundle; neurochaetae with long articles distally.................................................................................................... 7

2(1) Median chaetigers with notochaetae as long as body width; papillae very long, single; neurochaetal tips falcate (body often reddish).............................................. ... S. hirsuta ( Hansen, 1882) n. comb. Arctic and subarctic

– Median chaetigers with notochaetae longer than body width................................................... 3

3(2) Median neurochaetae with distal articles barely longer than wide, tips straight; gonopodial lobes present................ 4

– Median neurochaetae with most articles markedly longer than wide; no gonopodial lobes............................ 5

4(3) Gonopodial lobes dark (papillae core and tip blackish); body papillae thick, digitate (body often grayish). .................................................................... S. normani ( McIntosh, 1908) n. comb. Arctic and subarctic

– Gonopodial lobes pale; body papillae thin, filiform (body often pale)..................................................................................................... S. longisetosa ( von Marenzeller, 1890) Gulf of Alaska

5(3) Median chaetigers with neurochaetal tips falcate.. ........................................................... 6

– Median chaetigers with neurochaetal tips straight, non-falcate.................. S. omorpha n. sp. Central eastern Pacific

6(5) Median chaetigers neurochaetae with basal anchylosed region 1/2–1/3 chaetal length, medial and distal regions with articles 4–5 times longer than wide, barely shorter with a very slight reduction distally......... S. ilys n. sp. Central eastern Pacific

– Median chaetigers neurochaetae with basal anchylosed region 1/5–1/6 chaetal length, medial and distal regions with articles about twice longer than wide, progressively smaller.......... S. micans ( Fauchald, 1972) n. comb. Central eastern Pacific

7(1) Neurochaetal tips falcate............................................................................... 8

– Neurochaetal tips straight. .............................................................................. 9

8(7) Median chaetigers with notochaetae half as long as body width; median neuropodia with five neurochaetae per bundle; body wall and chaetae yellowish.. .................................... S. acafi ( Teixeira, Rizzo & Santos, 2015) n. comb.

– Median chaetigers with notochaetae slightly longer than body width; median neuropodia with eight neurochaetae per bundle; body wall and chaetae cinnamon in colour................................... S. canela n. sp. Central eastern Pacific

9(7) Sand particles restricted to the bases of papillae; neurochaetae with anchylosed region about 1/5 chaetal length........................................................... S. octobranchia ( Hartman, 1965) n. comb. Northwestern Atlantic

– Sand particles fixed along the papillae; neurochaetae with anchylosed region 1/2–1/3 chaetal length. ................................................................................................ Saphobranchia sp. Antarctica