Aurospio cf. dibranchiata Maciolek, 1981

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

Aurospio cf. dibranchiata Maciolek, 1981 Fig. 31A

Diagnosis.

Prostomium round anteriorly, elongated posteriorly (keel), extending to middle or the end of chaetiger 1, without appendages. Prostomial peaks and eyes absent. Peristomium fused to first chaetiger, with golden pigments dorsally along posterior margin of the prostomium. Dorsal crests and interparapodial pouches absent. Cirriform branchiae on chaetigers 3 and 4, small, often partially hidden by parapodial dorsal lamellae to which they are fused basally. Dorsal lamellae large and foliaceous from chaetigers 2-6, smaller and round thereafter. Particularly long capillaries present in anterior chaetigers. Multidentate long-shafted hooded hooks present in noto- and neuropodia, in neuropodia starting on chaetigers 10, much later in notopodia according to original description. Sabre chaetae from chaetiger 10.

Remarks.

Diagnostic characters are not consistently observable in all specimens due to their poor condition (all anterior fragments, longest anterior fragment with 19 chaetigers). Notopodial hooks were not present in examined specimens (all short anterior fragments). In some specimens a few branchiae were still present and the start of sabre chaetae and neuropodial hooks on chaetigers 10 could be observed. We here tentatively identify the examined specimens as Aurospio cf. dibranchiata Maciolek, 1981. The species is known to occur in deep waters of the Atlantic and central Pacific Oceans, but has not been reported yet from near Australia.

Records.

8 specimens. Suppl. material 1: ops. 16, 27, 31, 42, 79 (AM). 10 specimens. Suppl. material 1: ops. 23, 27, 31, 76 (NHMUK).

Figures

Figure 31. Spionidae A Aurospio cf. dibranchiata: anterior end, dorsal view (AM W. 52242) B Aurospio sp. nov. 1, anterior end, dorsal view (AM W. 52240) C Prionospio cf. amarsupiata, anterior end, dorsal view (AM W. 52221) D Dipolydora notialis, heavy spine with crest of bristles on convex side from chaetiger 5 (AM W. 52245) E Dipolydora notialis, bidentate hooded hooks with smooth, curved shafts without constriction from posterior chaetiger (AM W. 52245) F Laonice cf. blakei: anterior end, dorsal-oblique view (AM W. 52226) G Spiophanes anoculata, posteriorly incomplete specimen in dorsal-oblique view, metameric dorsal ciliated organ bordered by pigment of dark orange or ochre colour (AM W. 52222). Scale bars: 100 µm (A, B, C); 1 µm (D, E); 200 µm (F); 500 µm (G).