Ophelina cf. bowitzi Parapar, Moreira & Helgason, 2011

Gunton, Laetitia M., Kupriyanova, Elena K., Alvestad, Tom, Avery, Lynda, Blake, James A., Biriukova, Olga, Boeggemann, Markus, Borisova, Polina, Budaeva, Nataliya, Burghardt, Ingo, Capa, Maria, Georgieva, Magdalena N., Glasby, Christopher J., Hsueh, Pan-Wen, Hutchings, Pat, Jimi, Naoto, Kongsrud, Jon A., Langeneck, Joachim, Meissner, Karin, Murray, Anna, Nikolic, Mark, Paxton, Hannelore, Ramos, Dino, Schulze, Anja, Sobczyk, Robert, Watson, Charlotte, Wiklund, Helena, Wilson, Robin S., Zhadan, Anna & Zhang, Jinghuai, 2021, Annelids of the eastern Australian abyss collected by the 2017 RV ' Investigator' voyage, ZooKeys 1020, pp. 1-198 : 1

Ophelina cf. bowitzi Parapar, Moreira & Helgason, 2011 Fig. 17F, G

Diagnosis.

Prostomium bluntly conical with distinct nuchal organs and an oval palpode. Eyes absent. Posterior chaetigers compressed. Deep ventral and lateral grooves. Branchiae starting from chaetiger 2. Chaetae all capillaries. Longest branchiae found posteriorly, the largest ones with blister-shaped bumps. Anal funnel bent dorsally, as long as last ten posterior chaetigers, becoming narrower from base to tip, and with short terminal cirri. Three specimens having a more rectangular anal tube with a thickened lip instead of terminal cirri. Colour in ethanol pale yellow.

Remarks.

Initial observations of these specimens show that they match the description of Ophelina bowitzi , which has previously been recorded only from the North Atlantic Ocean ( Parapar et al. 2011; Kongsrud et al. 2013). Due to the distance between the collection and the type localities, we assign this species as Ophelina cf. bowitzi .

Records.

14 specimens. Suppl. material 1: ops. 9, 22, 23, 31, 45 (NHMUK).

Figures

Figure 17. Opheliidae A Ophelina cf. cirrosa B Ophelina cf. cirrosa, posterior end C Ophelina cf. cirrosa, anterior end D Ophelina cf. helgolandiae E Ophelina cf. helgolandiae, prostomium F Ophelina cf. bowitzi, branchiae with blister-shaped bumps G Ophelina cf. bowitzi, anal funnel. Scale bars: 3 mm (A); 0.5 mm (B, C); 5 mm (D); 0.25 mm (E, F); 1 mm (G).