Streblosoma polybranchia Verrill, 1900

Londoño-Mesa, Mario H., 2009, Terebellidae (Polychaeta: Terebellida) from the Grand Caribbean region 2320, Zootaxa 2320 (1), pp. 1-93 : 76

Streblosoma polybranchia Verrill, 1900 nomen dubius

Streblosoma (Eugrymaea) polybranchia, Verrill, 1900:662 .— Hessle, 1917:212.

Streblosoma polybranchia, Kritzler, 1971:905 .

Type material: Not found.

Diagnosis: Lateral lappets on segments 1–2. Five pairs of branchiae, first four pairs with 4 filaments, those in first pair longest; one filament in last pair. Notochaetae progressively decreasing in size; forty-four pairs of notopodia; notochaetae of two lengths, long chaetae slender, limbate, with slender tips, short chaetae wider, limbate, and bent distally, with shorter tips. Neuropodia from segment 4, with thoracic and abdominal uncini with dental formula MF:2–3:5:1–3, with middle tooth in each row, longer and more visible than adjacent teeth.

Discussion: Type specimens were not located. This species was initially placed in the subgenus Eugrymaea by Verrill (1900); however, Hessle (1917) considered the genus Eugrymaea established for terebellids with 4–5 pairs of branchiae, invalid, without any justification. Kritzler (1971) recognized S. polybranchia ; nevertheless, he does not mention the presence of lateral lappets on the first two segments. Lateral lappets have been used as a character to delineate species of Thelepus and Euthelepus , the latter having lateral lappets. Thus, the corroboration of lateral lappets on this species, after the revision of type specimen, would suggest the possibility of splitting this genus, in similar way it was done for Thelepus . Also, the number of pairs of branchiae, and the form of uncini must also be considered as the number and arrangement of teeth above the main fang are different from that of the type species of the genus. Finally, Streblosoma is a genus with pairs of neuropodia from segment 5, but this species was described with neuropodia from segment 4. Thus, it is likely that this species belongs to other genus because of the combination of characters. Revision of type material will help to elucidate this. Until this revision is done, the species must remain a nomen dubius.

Type locality: Bermuda .