Harmothoe anoculata Hartmann-Schröder, 1975

Barnich, Ruth & Fiege, Dieter, 2009, Revision of the genus Harmothoe Kinberg, 1856 (Polychaeta: Polynoidae) in the Northeast Atlantic, Zootaxa 2104 (1), pp. 1-76 : 18

Harmothoe anoculata Hartmann-Schröder, 1975

( Fig. 1 )

Harmothoe (Eunoe) anoculata Hartmann-Schröder, 1975: 49 , figs. 1–4.

Harmothoe anoculata: Barnich & Fiege (2003) : 31.

Type material. Harmothoe (Eunoe) anoculata : holotype ZMH P13601, 7 paratypes ZMH P13602, "Meteor" 3 St. 30, off Portugal, 45°55.4’N 14°07.9’W, 14 March 1966, 5260 m (holo- and paratypes in poor condition).

Diagnosis. Without eyes. Elytral margin and adjacent surface with scattered papillae; surface covered by elongate conical microtubercles.

Remarks. The type material seems to have deteriorated even more since the original description. As no additional specimen is available, we will not present a redescription here. Elytral and parapodial characters described by Hartmann-Schröder and still visible on the types allow it to be distinguished from another anoculate deep sea species, i.e. H. ingolfiana Ditlevsen, 1917 , which has drop-shaped or cylindrical macrotubercles (see redescription below).

Harmothoe vagabunda Pettibone, 1985 from experimental wood panels in the Northwest Atlantic seems to be close to, or might even be a junior synonym of H. anoculata . According to Pettibone (1985) H. vagabunda has only small cephalic peaks, neuropodia without a distinct supra-acicular process, and distinctly bidentate neurochaetae, while in H. anoculata cephalic peaks are rather prominent, the neuropodial supraacicular process is distinctly digitiform, and bidentate neurochaetae have only a minute secondary tooth. In the course of our projected revision of the Northwest Atlantic species we will check the types of H. vagabunda and hope to have some more material of H. anoculata from off Portugal for comparison.

Distribution. Deep Northeast Atlantic, off Portugal.

Habitat. Probably muddy substrate, in 5260 m.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Identification characters of Harmothoe anoculata, H. ingolfiana, H. areolata, H. spinifera, H. antilopes, and H. imbricata.