Amphictene Lamarck, 1818

Hutchings, P. & Peart, R., 2002, A Review of the Genera of Pectinariidae (Polychaeta) Together with a Description of the Australian Fauna, Records of the Australian Museum 54, pp. 99-127 : 102

Amphictene Lamarck, 1818

Amphictene Lamarck, 1818: 89 .– Fauchald, 1977: 120.

Pectinaria (Amphictene) .– Holthe, 1986: 22.

Diagnosis. Rim of cephalic veil with numerous long cirri. Cephalic veil completely free from operculum forming dorsal semi-circle around numerous peristomial palps. Raised opercular margin cirrate. Chaetigers 1 to 3 (segments 5 to 7) with notopodia and notochaetae only, chaetigers 4 to 16 biramous with notopodia, neuropodia, notochaetae and neurochaetae, chaetiger 17 with notopodia and notochaetae only (giving ratio of number of pairs of notopodia to neuropodia 17/13). Notochaetae all smooth winged capillaries, some with hirsute surfaces and others with finely serrated margins. Neurochaetal uncini with major teeth arranged in two rows. Posterior 5 segments fused to form flattened plate or scaphe and distinctly separated from the abdomen.

Type species. Amphitrite auricoma Müller, 1776 ; subsequent designation by Hartman, 1959.

Remarks. Ten species of Amphictene have been described and two additional species are described in this paper. The major diagnostic features of these species are given in Table 1. Several species are poorly described and in some cases characters states have had to be assigned from non-type material. We have transferred one species previously described as Pectinaria leioscapha Caullery (1944) to the genus Amphictene , because the opercular rim is described as being cirrate.