Neanthes glandicincta ( Southern, 1921 )

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 : 98

Neanthes glandicincta ( Southern, 1921)

Nereis glandicincta Southern, 1921: 589 –593. Nereis glandicincta . Fauvel 1953: 181 –182.

Material examined. Iran, the Persian Gulf: Qeshm Island- Mangrove forest , two specimens ( ZUTC Ann. 1108) , Qeshm Island- Tola village , two specimens ( ZUTC Ann. 1111), Gulf of Oman: Khur Sirik- Dhow building, two specimens ( ZUTC Ann. 1157), Bandar Emam Khomeini- Sarbandar, nine specimens ( ZUTC Ann. 1168), two specimens ( ZUTC Ann. 1179), 4 specimens ( ZUTC 6153 ), six specimens ( ZUTC 6154 ), Khur Khalasi, two specimens ( ZUTC Ann. 1180).

Description. Body 31 mm long, 2.4 mm wide at chaetiger 10 including parapodia. Palps longer than antennae. Conical paragnaths on maxillary ring arranged as follows: I = 2 small paragnaths, II = 8 paragnaths in triangular shape, III = 24 paragnaths in long band, IV = small cluster of 6–7 paragnaths. Paragnaths on oral ring arranged as follows: V = absent, VI = one small papilla with a tiny paragnath at tip, VII–VIII = absent. Anterior notopodia have two conical ligules, dorsal and ventral one are equal in length and longer than prechaetal notopodial lobe, dorsal cirrus approximately as long as dorsal ligule. Anterior neuropodia with two ligules (acicular and ventral), acicular neuropodial ligule conical with equal-sized prechaetal and postchaetal lobes. Ventral neuropodial ligule digitiform and smaller than acicular neuropodial ligule. Ventral cirrus shorter than ventral ligule. Neurochaetae homogomph spinigers with long finely serrated blades in upper group and with shorter blades in lower group. Posterior notopodia similar to anterior notopodia, however dorsal cirri relatively longer. Posterior neuropodia similar in size to the anterior neuropodia. Neurochaetae fewer and homogomph spinigers replaced by hemigomph spinigers especially in the lower group. Ventral cirrus shorter than ventral neuropodial ligule.

Remarks. Neanthes glandicincta Southern, 1921 is commonly reported from southern and eastern Asia ( Lee & Glasby 2015; Wu et al. 1985). It is an atypical Neanthes in having an almost bare oral ring of pharynx (only a small paragnath-tipped papilla present on Area VI) and parapodia bearing three notopodial lobes ( Lee & Glasby 2015). In these two features N. glandicincta resembles species of Leonnates . According to Southern’s type description, the oral ring paragnaths in N. glandicincta are much reduced, and may easily fall off. The studied material is similar to N. wilsonchani Lee & Glasby and N. glandicincta from Singapore with the exception that present material lack completely paragnaths in Areas VII–VIII. Further, the specimens examined have more paragnaths in Area I (1–6 vs 1), Area II (5–24 vs 6) and Area III (13–28 vs 11), than material described by Southern (1921) and fewer paragnaths in Area I, Area III and IV than materials recorded in Singapore. The present specimens represent the first record of the species from the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman and presently represent the westernmost distribution limit for the N. glandicincta species group.

Distribution. Indian Ocean, South China Sea ( Lee & Glasby 2015), Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman