Leonnates decipiens Fauvel, 1929

Bonyadi-Naeini, Alieh, Rastegar-Pouyani, Nasrullah, Rastegar-Pouyani, Eskandar, Glasby, Christopher J. & Rahimian, Hassan, 2017, Nereididae (Annelida: Phyllodocida) of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, including description of two new species and 11 new records, Zootaxa 4244 (1), pp. 91-117 : 96-97

Leonnates decipiens Fauvel, 1929

Leonnates decipiens Fauvel 1929: 180 ; Ben-Eliahu 1972: 192; Hartman 1974b: 196; Hartman 1974a: 618; Ben-Eliahu 1991: 322; Qiu & Qian 2000: 1123.

Leonnates jousseaumei . Fauvel 1927: 426. Not Gravier 1901.

Material examined. Iran, Gulf of Oman, Bujikdan, one specimen ( ZUTC Ann. 1116).

Description. Incomplete material with 40 chaetigers, 8 mm length remaining, 1.21 mm wide at chaetiger 10 (including parapodia). Color in alcohol cream with dark glands visible in dorsal ligules from median part of body to the end. Prostomium not cleft anteriorly and wider than long. Antennae longer than palps. Jaws with smooth cutting edge. Pharynx everted with small, transparent, conical paragnaths on maxillary ring, arranged as follows: Area I = 0, II =5–6, in small cluster, III =10, IV= 6 in small group; oral ring papillae arranged as follows: V=0, VI= one large papilla, VII–VIII = 5 papillae in single row. Parapodium from chaetiger 10: Notopodia with three ligules, all the same length. Dorsal cirrus shorter than dorsal ligule. Neuropodia with two ligules, Neuropodia with conical acicular and postchaetal lobes. Ventral ligule subconical, exceeds length of acicular lobes. Ventral cirrus shorter than ventral ligule. Parapodia from chaetigers 35, 40: Dorsal notopodial ligule with some glands and longer than the notopodial ventral ligule. Dorsal cirrus as long as dorsal ligule. Anterior neuropodia with two similar length lobes; posterior neuropodia with postchaetal lobe reduced and ventral ligule much longer than acicular ligule. Neurochaetae of chaetiger 10, homogomph spinigers and one heterogomph spiniger. Neurochaetae of chaetiger 35, homogomph spinigers and heterogomph spiniger, homogomph falcigers and heterogomph falcigers. Falcigers with spinous blade with truncate tip. Neurochaeta of chaetiger 40 same as anterior ones, but homogomph and heterogomph falcigers absent and also absent from more posterior chaetigers.

Remarks. The material examined agrees well in paragnath numbers and parapodial characters to previous descriptions, except that neuropodial falcigers are absent from chaetiger 38 to the end of the body. This species can be distinguished from Leonnates crinitus by having fewer paragnaths in Area III. This is the first report of L. decipiens from the Persian Gulf.

Distribution. Suez Canal, Red Sea, Arabian Sea ( Wehe & Fiege 2002), Gulf of Mannar (type locality) ( Fauvel 1929), Mozambique ( Day 1967), Sri Lanka, Australia ( Qiu & Qian 2000).