Protodrilus cf. puniceus Sato-Okoshi, Okoshi, & Fujiwara, 2015

Fig. 24

Material examined. NHMUKANEA 2022.432, IN2017 _ V03 _100; 9 June 2017; off Byron Bay, NSW, Australia, beam trawl, start: 28.05°S 154.08°E, 999 m, end: 28.10°S 154.08°E, 1013 m. DNA vouchers : NHMUKANEA 2022.432 (COI, 16S, 18S), WF_PRO_1 (16S), same locality .

Description. Body shape slender and filiform with head slightly larger than body (Fig. 24). Paired antennae inserted terminally; noeye spots visible. Pygidiumwith pairedlateral lobes and a median cluster of cilia.

Distribution. IN2017_V03, Station 100. Pilot whale carcass, off Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia in 999–1013 m.

Remarks. In the phylogenetic tree (Fig. 25) this species is placed well within the genus Protodrilus with Protodrilus puniceus Sato-Okoshi, Okoshi, & Fujiwara, 2015 described from whalefall off the coast of Japan as sister taxon. In 18S the uncorrected “p” distance is 0.02 between the two sister taxa, while the distances to other taxa are 0.08 and above. However, only sequences from the 18S gene were available from P. puniceus, preventingusfrom confirmingor rejecting the identity of the new species based on molecular data.