Anobothrus Levinsen, 1884

Reuscher, Michael, Fiege, Dieter & Wehe, Thomas, 2009, Four new species of Ampharetidae (Annelida: Polychaeta) from Pacific hot vents and cold seeps, with a key and synoptic table of characters for all genera, Zootaxa 2191, pp. 1-40 : 27-28

Anobothrus Levinsen, 1884

Type species: Ampharete gracilis Malmgren, 1866 Synonyms : Anobothrella Hartman, 1967: 155 –156. Melythasides Desbruyères, 1978: 232 –235.

Sosanides Hartmann-Schröder, 1965: 243 –246.

Generic diagnosis (emended): Prostomium without glandular ridges. Buccal tentacles smooth or papillose. Three to four pairs of cirriform branchiae. A pair of median nephridial papillae behind branchiae. Chaetae on segment II present and developed as paleae or absent. 14–16 thoracic chaetigers and 11–12 thoracic uncinigers. Notopodia and notochaetae of segment III may be reduced. One anterior unciniger with circular band. Fourth-, fifth- or sixth-to-last thoracic unciniger with one or more modifications: elevated notopodia connected by a more or less pronounced glandular ridge and/or modified chaetae present. Exceptionally no elevated notopodia or modified chaetae present, but last few thoracic uncinigers prolonged. No abdominal rudimentary notopodia present.

Remarks. The genus Anobothrus was recently revised (Jirkov in press). Jirkov synonymised the genera Anobothrus , Anobothrella , Melythasides , and Sosanides due to the presence of a circular band on one of the anterior thoracic segments, modifications of a posterior thoracic unciniger and the position of paired nephridial papillae. We have modified the generic definition to include species of Anobothrus with or without chaetae on segment II (paleae) in order to accommodate the new species described here. The size of chaetae on segment II (paleae) varies gradually within a genus; as an extreme development, they can lack completely. Therefore, the presence of paleae should be considered as an inappropriate generic character but useful as a specific character. This was also proposed by Jirkov (1994, in press) for Ampharete Malmgren, 1866 and Anobothrus , respectively.