Sphaerodoce Bergström, 1914

Salazar-Vallejo, Sergio I., 2022, New species of hesionid and phyllodocid polychaetes (Annelida, Errantia) from Clipperton Island, Zoosystema 44 (1), pp. 1-26 : 7

Genus Sphaerodoce Bergström, 1914 reinstated

Sphaerodoce Bergström, 1914: 101 (diagn. incl. pharynx), 154 (type species, diagn.).

Phyllodoce (Phyllodoce) – Pleijel 1993b: 298 (partim).

TYPE SPECIES. — Phyllodoce quadraticeps Grube, 1878 , by original designation.

DIAGNOSIS. — Phyllodocids with prostomium with two globular to conical lateral antennae, median antenna reduced to a nuchal papilla. Four pairs of tentacular cirri, segments 1 and 2 with globose cirri, segment 3 with oblong tapered cirri. Dorsal cirrophore without acicula; supracicular lobes blunt, as long as subacicular ones; ventral cirri oval, blunt. Pharynx with a very long basal region, with tiny globular papillae, distal region minute, smooth surfaces.

REMARKS

Relevant features that help reinstate Sphaerodoce rely on the anterior part of the body. The type species, P. quadraticeps Grube, 1878 was described from the Philippines; it has a quadratic prostomium, and almost all its tentacular cirri, as well as lateral antennae and palps are all globular, whereas the prostomium is oval to cordate, and cirri are all subulate in Phyllodoce . Because these unique features were not included (shape of prostomium, shape of tentacular cirri), the type species groups with other species of Phyllodoce sensu stricto in the phylogeny by Pleijel (1993b). The papillae pattern on the pharynx was not described by Grube (1878). Gravier (1900: 1908) recorded P. quadraticeps for the Red Sea and observed the pharynx by dissection, and Day (1967: 146, fig. 5.2h) illustrated a specimen with a partially exposed pharynx. The pharynx is very long with abundant small papillae, but these Western Indian Ocean records might belong to a different species. Pleijel (1993b: 298) listed specimens deposited in several museums and regarded the papillation pattern of the basal pharynx area as dense and diffuse.