Vermiliopsis multiannulata (Moore, 1923)

(Figures 8, 13 I)

Metavermilia multiannulata Moore, 1923: 251 –253, pl. 18, Fig. 48. Type locality: off Point Pinos Lighthouse, central California, 91–104 m, green mud and rocks. Only the holotype belongs to the genus Vermiliopsis; the other specimens from the type-series, from San Nicolas Island, Southern California, belong to Pseudovermilia conchata (see ten Hove 1975: 88).

Vermiliopsis glandigerus (not Gravier, 1906).— Monro 1933b: 1085 ( Coiba Island, Panamá).

Vermiliopsis multiannulata .— Rioja 1941b: 734, pl. 9, Figs 27–36 (Acapulco, Guerrero, on algae) ; Rioja 1942: 130 (Mazatlán, Sinaloa, on rocks); Rioja 1960: 255 (Lozano Bay, Socorro Island, on Eucidaris thouarsii spines and rocks); Hartman 1961: 45 (Central and Southern California, rocky habitats in shallow depths) ; Rioja 1963: 220 (Zihuatanejo, Guerrero; Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco; Topolobampo, Sinaloa; and Guaymas, Sonora); Salazar-Vallejo & Londoño-Mesa 2004: 57 (Tropical Eastern Pacific, checklist); ten Hove & Kupriyanova 2009: 102 (worldwide serpulid checklist); Tovar-Hernández et al. 2009b: 333, Figs 3 n, 8g-j (fouling in Mazatlán, Sinaloa); Dean et al. 2012: 364 –365 ( Cocos Island, Costa Rica); Villalobos-Guerrero et al. 2014: 107 (Sinaloa, checklist).

Vermiliopsis infundibulum (not Philippi, 1844).— Hartman 1969: 779 –780, Figs 1–5 (Southern California, all figures were taken from Fauvel 1927: 364, Faune de France); Berkeley & Berkeley 1961: 662 –663 (Carmel Canyon, Southern California; 24–48 m) ; Bailey-Brock 1976: 77 –79 (Oahu Island, Hawaii; 200–600 m) .

Pseudovermilia conchata (not ten Hove, 1975).— de León-González et al. 1993: 879 (Puerto Escondido Bay, Baja California Sur, epifauna on the oyster “ Spondylus princeps unicolor ”; 30 m); Hernández-Alcántara et al. 2003: 9 (Socorro Island, checklist).

cf. Vermiliopsis multiannulata .— Dean 1996: 84 (Golfo Dulce, Pacific coast of Costa Rica); Dean 2004: 165–166 (list of polychaetes from Costa Rica).

Vermiliopsis infundibulum glandigera complex.— López-García et al. 1997: 67 ( Coiba Island, Panamá, on dead corals); Bastida-Zavala 2008: 53, fig. 13D (Baja California Sur and Oaxaca; 6–30 m); Bastida-Zavala et al. 2013: 349 (Oaxaca, checklist).

Material examined. 13 specimens.

Baja California Sur: UMAR-Poly 828-OH, 10 spec. (Caleritas Beach, La Paz Bay, March 1, 2006, coll. DHP et al.); UMAR-Poly 829 (Mexican Pacific, probably Concepción Bay, sta. 173, no more data).

Michoacán: UMAR-Poly 830 (Caleta de Campos, on sabellariid tubes, December 17, 1994, coll. RBZ).

Oaxaca: UMAR-Poly 831 (Puerto Ángel, on rocks, April 18, 2009, coll. JLR).

Habitat. Subtidal (6–104 m, Moore 1923); Bailey-Brock (1976) recorded specimens from 200–600 m, from Oahu, Hawaii; it is possible that these would prove to be a species different from Vermiliopsis multiannulata . In rock pools and on sabellariid tubes, also on spiny oysters “ Spondylus princeps unicolor ” (de León-González et al. 1993) and S. limbatus (Bastida-Zavala 2008) .

Distribution. California (Moore 1923), Hawaii (Bailey-Brock 1976), and Tropical Eastern Pacific, from Punta San Juanico, western coast of Baja California Sur to Panamá (Rioja 1941b; López-García et al. 1997; Bastida- Zavala 2008).

Remarks. The status of Vermiliopsis multiannulata was rather confused, type specimens and historical records are a mix of V. multiannulata, Pseudovermilia occidentalis and P. conchata ten Hove, 1975 (Bastida-Zavala 2008: 54) . Vermiliopsis multiannulata sensu stricto is part of the V. infundibulum / glandigerus /pygidialis complex (ten Hove & Kupriyanova 2009: 102), that can only be solved with a thorough revision of the genus, including morphological and molecular characters and ecological aspects. For the Tropical Eastern Pacific we have used the local name V. multiannulata, following the suggestion of Tovar-Hernández et al. (2009b: 333). One of the reasons for this is that our taxon occurs infrequently in fouling samples from marinas and ports, a main dispersal mode for exotic species, and it is thus less likely that it has arrived as result of anthropogenic activities.