Ophelina Orsted , 1843

Wiklund, Helena, Neal, Lenka, Glover, Adrian G., Drennan, Regan, Muriel Rabone, & Dahlgren, Thomas G., 2019, Abyssal fauna of polymetallic nodule exploration areas, eastern Clarion-Clipperton Zone, central Pacific Ocean: Annelida: Capitellidae, Opheliidae, Scalibregmatidae, and Travisiidae, ZooKeys 883, pp. 1-82 : 1

Ophelina Orsted, 1843

Notes.

Ørsted (1843) erected Ophelina for O. acuminata from Danish coasts. It is now represented by around 60 species ( Read and Fauchald 2019), although the numbers vary according to different workers due to its confused taxonomic history ( Maciolek and Blake 2006; Parapar et al. 2011). Ophelina is the most diverse genus of the family Opheliidae , although it likely represents a paraphyletic grouping ( Law et al. 2014). This genus is represented in UKSR-collected material by 11 species as revealed by molecular analysis.

The diagnosis of Ophelina presented here follows that given by Maciolek and Blake (2006).

Diagnosis.

Body elongate, with deep ventral groove and two lateral grooves along entire length of body. Prostomium conical, sometimes with terminal palpode; eyes present or absent. Branchiae present or absent; if present, beginning on chaetiger 2, continuing to posterior end, sometimes absent from middle or far posterior chaetigers; branchiae single, cirriform. Segmental lateral eyes absent. Noto- and neuropodia with small fascicles of capillary chaetae; small ventral cirrus present. Pygidium with anal funnel sometimes bearing long unpaired cirrus and additional lateral cirri.