Nereis

Bonyadi-Naeini, Alieh, Rastegar-Pouyani, Nasrullah, Rastegar-Pouyani, Eskandar, Glasby, Christopher J. & Rahimian, Hassan, 2017, Nereididae (Annelida: Phyllodocida) of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, including description of two new species and 11 new records, Zootaxa 4244 (1), pp. 91-117 : 103

Nereis sp. cf. N. pelagica Linnaeus, 1758

Nereis pelagica Linnaeus, 1758: 508 .

Nereis pelagica . Amoureux et al. 1978: 82; Hartman 1959: 266.

Material examined. Iran, Persian Gulf, Genaveh Jetty, one specimen ( ZUTC 6162 ).

Habitat. Intertidal, sandy-cobble beach

Description. Material examined incomplete about 35 chaetigers, color in alcohol light cream. Frontal antennae as long as palps. Longest tentacular cirri extending back to chaetiger 5. Jaws yellowish with dentate cutting edge and 7–8 teeth. All paragnaths conical. Paragnaths on maxillary ring arranged as follows: I= 5 in a group, II=about 25 in wedge shape, III=an oval group of about 15, IV= a circular group of about 15, paragnaths on oral ring arranged as follows: V= 12 in triangular shape, one at corner of triangle larger than others, VI= 9 in circular group, VII–VIII= irregular broad band of similar-sized paragnaths. Anterior notopodia with two equal, conical ligules. Dorsal notopodial ligule reduced posteriorly. Dorsal cirrus longer than dorsal ligule. Dorsal cirrus becoming longer and sub-terminal posteriorly. Anterior neuropodia with two ligules. Neuropodial prechaetal lobe present. Ventral neuropodial ligule of anterior chaetigers equal in length to acicular neuropodial ligule, reduced posteriorly. Notochaetae are homogomph spinigers anteriorly and one or more homogomph falcigers posteriorly. Blades of falcigers with two or more small teeth. Neurochaetae dorsal fascicle are homogomph spinigers. Neurochaetae ventral fascicle are heterogomph spinigers with blades finely serrated, and heterogomph falcigers.

Remarks. The single specimen available to study resembles closely Nereis pelagica , but differs in the number and shape of paragnaths in all areas of pharynx, for example more paragnaths in Area I (5 vs 1–2) and Area II (25 vs 10–20) than Nereis pelagica from Scottish waters ( Chambers & Garwood 1992). Also, it has 12 paragnaths in Area V arranged in a triangular shape (the one at the corner of the triangle is larger than the others, but Nereis pelagica from Scottish waters has no paragnaths in Area V. Nereis pelagica is reported to be cosmopolitan ( Bakken & Wilson 2005); however, this is the first record of a form resembling N. pelagica from the Persian Gulf.