Neosabellaria, KIRTLEY, 1994

Capa, María, Hutchings, Pat & Peart, Rachael, 2012, Systematic revision of Sabellariidae (Polychaeta) and their relationships with other polychaetes using morphological and DNA sequence data, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 164 (2), pp. 245-284 : 265-267

NEOSABELLARIA KIRTLEY, 1994

Neosabellaria Kirtley, 1994: 16 ; Nishi et al., 2010: 4 .

Type species: Sabellaria cementarium Moore, 1906 . From Admiralty Inlet , vininity of Port Townsend, Alaska, USA .

Diagnosis: Neosabellaria is characterized by a unique combination of characters: the presence of short palps, often not reaching half the length of the operculum and the presence of excavated outer paleae.

Description: Operculum length similar to maximum width, with lobes completely fused, although shallow mid ventral indentation sometimes present at proximal end; distal end flat and perpendicular to longitudinal axis. Numerous conical and small opercular papillae. Outer paleae numerous, arranged in semicircles, geniculate, with excavated blades, smooth lateral markings and denticulated distal margin with a midline plume. Inner opercular paleae giving the appearance of two rows. Middle paleae geniculate with excavated, smooth blades and pointed tips directed outwards, some species with rounded tipped blades also present. Innermost paleae strongly geniculated, with short and concave ones directed inwards. Nuchal spines absent. Compound tentacular filaments arranged in series of rows; buccal flaps absent. Palps shorter than half length of operculum. Median organ at dorsal junction of lobes of opercular stalk present but small. Neuropodia of segment 1 with one pair of cirri and capillary chaetae, at least in specimens examined. Segment 2 with two pairs of triangular-shaped lobes between noto- and neuropodia. Thoracic branchiae present. Three parathoracic segments. Parathoracic notochaetae lanceolate and capillaries alternating; neurochaetae similar in shape but smaller. Abdominal branchiae absent in posterior segments.

Remarks: Kirtley (1994) erected the genus and transferred into it previously described species of Sabellaria based on the complete fusion of the opercular stalk and crown whereas in Sabellaria they are only partially fused. Neosabellaria , Sabellaria , and Phragmatopoma are grouped based on the appearance of having three rows of opercular paleae, together with other character-states that are homoplastic, such as the presence of short opercular papillae, branching tentacular filaments, outer paleae geniculate and with distal denticles, innermost paleae geniculate and concave, and three parathoracic segments. Neosabellaria and Sabellaria resemble each other in the type of paleae in the middle row, as they are slightly geniculate, with excavated blades, and pointing outwards while in Phragmatopoma they are strongly geniculate, with convex blades and pointing inwards. However, according to our analyses Phragmatopoma seems to be more closely related to Neosabellaria , as both genera share an operculum with lobes completely fused. A key to the species of Neosabellaria is given by Bailey-Brock et al. (2007) and seven species are currently known, restricted to the Indo-Pacific.