Eunice vittata (Delle Chiaje, 1828)

Zanol, Joana, Hutchings, Pat A. & Fauchald, Kristian, 2020, Eunice sensu latu (Annelida: Eunicidae) from Australia: description of seven new species and comments on previously reported species of the genera Eunice, Leodice and Nicidion, Zootaxa 4748 (1), pp. 1-43 : 21

Eunice vittata (delle Chiaje, 1828)

Nereis vittata delle Chiaje, 1828: 195.

Eunice vittata .— Grube 1850: 93.— Dounas & Koukouras 1989: 227.— Fauchald 1992: 337.

Remarks. This species has been reported from South Australia (AM records), Victoria and New South Wales in Australia ( Day & Hutchings 1979), and more generally in most oceans of the world, although it was originally described from the Mediterranean. The characterizing features of the taxon have usually been taken to be the presence of tridentate subacicular hooks, branchiae limited to the anterior end of the body and antennae with elongated cylindrical articulations. This characterization is insufficient to identify the species. Eunice vittata has multiple subacicular hooks, usually four or five, in a row ( Dounas & Koukouras 1989; Fauchald 1992). All specimens from Australia identified as this species present in AM collections and examined by us have single subacicular hooks, most of them are re-identified here as Leodice australis . The others are in relatively poor shape. Anterior appendages have been lost or mutilated or they are incomplete, making identification unwarranted at this time. We suggest that this species does not occur in Australian waters.