Marphysa furcellata Crossland, 1903

Hutchings, Pat, Lavesque, Nicolas, Priscilla, Lyndsay, Daffe, Guillemine, Malathi, E. & Glasby, Christopher J., 2020, A new species of Marphysa (Annelida: Eunicida: Eunicidae) from India, with notes on previously described or reported species from the region, Zootaxa 4852 (3), pp. 285-308 : 296

Marphysa furcellata Crossland, 1903

Marphysa furcellata Crossland, 1903: 141–143 , Pl. XV, figs 13, 14.— Gravely, 1927: 18.— Glasby & Hutchings, 2010, table 2. Non Fauvel, 1932, 1953.

Material examined. None.

Remarks. Glasby & Hutchings (2010, Table 2) provided a list of key characters based on the syntypes (BMNH 1960.3.13.6) and the type description of this species.

Fauvel (1932, 1953: 245) synonymised M. furcellata with M. sanguinea Montagu, 1813 , because both have similar large pectinate chaetae, but as discussed below, Marphysa sanguinea does not likely occur in India.

Type locality. Zanzibar (one specimen collected intertidally, near town of Zanzibar and another dredged in 27.5 m in Zanzibar Channel in mud) .

Remarks. This is a relatively poorly-known Marphysa species, primarily because the presence/absence of subacicular limbate capillaries was not reported; further we do not know whether the species reproduces with jelly cocoons ( Glasby & Hutchings 2010). It appears to differ from M. gravelyi in having prostomial appendages lacking a basal peduncle (present in M. gravelyi ), and having two types of pectinate chaetae in posterior chaetigers, including very coarsely toothed ones (single type of pectinate chaetae with numerous teeth in M. gravelyi )—but recent studies on the genus reveal that without a thorough investigation of the distribution of pectinate chaetae along the body it could be easy to overlook one or two types.

Marphysa furcellata differs from M. madrasi n. sp., in having compound spinigers present only after about segment 150 whereas in the new species they are present from the first segments onwards, and they also differ in the number of types of pectinate chaetae present. At this time, we suggest that this species does not occur in Indian waters hence the specimen identified as M. furcellata in India is likely an undescribed species.