Synelmis amoureuxi, Salazar-Vallejo, 2003

Salazar-Vallejo, Sergio I., 2003, Revision of Synelmis Chamberlin, 1919 (Annelida, Polychaeta, Pilargidae), Zoosystema 25 (1), pp. 17-42 : 22-23

Synelmis amoureuxi n. sp.

( Fig. 2 )

Ancistrosyllis rigida – Augener 1927: 50, 51. — Fauvel 1953b: 7 (non Fauvel 1919a).

Synelmis sp. A – Wolf 1984: 29.35-29.37, figs 29.35, 29.36.

Synelmis albini – Pettibone 1966: 191-195, figs 19-21 (partim). — Nonato & Luna 1970: 68, figs 10, 11 (material not seen). — Rullier & Amoureux 1979: 160 (partim).

Synelmis simplex – Treadwell 1924: 12, 13 (non Chamberlin 1919, partim).

TYPE MATERIAL. — Holotype: Brazil, Calypso , stn 1, off S. Joao Pessoa, 7°29’S, 34°30’W, 45 m, complete specimen ( MNHN A885 , As 197). Paratypes: Caribbean Sea, Univ. Iowa Barbados-Antigua Expedition, Fort Barclay , English Harbor, Antigua, summer 1918, id. A. L. Treadwell, M. H. Pettibone, 1 paratype ( USNM 20306 ) ; Caracasbaai , Curaçao, 1.V.1920, C. J. van der Horst, 1 paratype ( ZMA V. Pol. 38) ; West Indies , stn 227-10, 1942, W. Hartman coll., 1 paratype, complete specimen, 15 mm long, 0.2 mm wide with 83 setigers, notospines start in setiger 5 ( USNM 49241 ) .

ETYMOLOGY. — Named for Dr Louis Amoureux, a polychaete researcher from the Université catholique de l’Ouest, Angers, for his many publications on polychaetes and especially his studies on materials collected by the Calypso expeditions, including some of these specimens.

TYPE LOCALITY. — Off S. Joao Pessoa, Brazil.

OTHER MATERIAL EXAMINED. — Caribbean Sea. N off Martinique Island, Président Théodore Tissier, stn 187, 15°15’N, 60°57’W, 90 m, posterior fragment ( MNHN AW 646 , A900 , T 99-41 ) ; Fauvel slide collection, 1 slide (IEA-A81’). (There are four parapodia; body wall was desintegrated and the resin has fractured. One of the parapodia has an additional acicula and in two others finely limbate neurosetae can be seen but furcate setae could not be found). — Off Vieques Island, Puerto Rico, stn 6, 28.IV. 1978, 347 m, 1 damaged specimen ( USNM 56349 ) .

Brazil. Calypso , off Fernando de Noronha Island , stn 17, 3°48.6’S, 32°24.8’W, 52 m, 1 specimen in three portions ( MNHN A885 , As 199) ; 1 anterior fragment ( MNHN A879 , Ak 489). — S of Recife , stn 27, 8°25’S, 34°48’W, 33 m, posterior fragment ( MNHN A879 Ak 489) .

DISTRIBUTION. — Martinique, Curaçao, Lesser Antilles, to Recife, Brazil, including Fernando de Noronha Island, in 33-90 m depth.

DESCRIPTION

Holotype with body dark ( MNHN A885, As 197), filiform, 23-32 mm in length, 0.6-0.9 mm in width, 78-106 setigers (and one or two posterior asetigers). Integument smooth but adsorbed salt gives rugose or even spinulose appearance, especially in cirral tips.

Prostomium rectangular, with biarticulated palps separated from each other and both separated from the prostomium, palpostyles massive knobs with smooth tegument and single ventrolateral papillae arising from base of each ( Fig. 2A ). Three cirriform antennae, lateral antennae emerge at base of palps and reach palpostyle tips; median antenna is slightly longer, emerging from posterior prostomial margin. Two lensed eyes placed slightly laterally. Two pairs of tentacular cirri, cirriform, slightly longer than cirri of setiger 1. Parapodia with cirriform cirri, with basal swelling in all setigers; setal lobe wider and about one third length of the cirri. Notopodia reduced to dorsal cirrus; from setiger 5 straight notospine emerges, becomes posteriorly longer and thicker. Notospines project farther in posterior setigers but most are broken ( Fig. 2 B-D). Prepygidal region with one or two asetigerous segments, parapodial cirri long, cirriform. Pygidium simple, anus terminal, and two anal cirri as long as the last two segments ( Fig. 2E ).

Notosetae restricted to notospines, completely smooth and slightly curved distally. Neurosetae of three kinds, limbate capillaries most abundant, smaller ventrally than dorsally, few long smooth capillaries, and one or two slightly asymmetrical furcate setae. Details difficult to determine because of the adsorbed salt.

Pharynx as long as two setigers when complelety everted, non-everted pharynx reaches setiger 10, unpigmented. Posterior gut unpigmented, rings of muscle cells not visible. Brain bilobed, short, reaches slightly past setiger 1.

Other paratype (USNM 20306) is an anterior fragment with two deep cuts over its anterior end to remove several parapodia at the same time. It is 25 mm long, 1.0 mm wide, with 51 setigers. The prostomium has one pair of eyes but the right one is split into two. Notospines start from setiger 5; pharynx is partly everted, about 12 setigers long.

REMARKS

Synelmis amoureuxi n. sp. resembles S. gibbsi n. sp. and S. knoxi Glasby, 2003 , in having cirriform antennae and cirri, and notospines starting from setiger 5, but they differ in the relative length of median antennae and first dorsal cirri being longer in S. gibbsi n. sp. and S. knoxi ; also, in both species, the median setigers have basally swollen cirri.

Figures

FIG. 2. — Synelmis amoureuxi n. sp. from northern Brazil (MNHN A885 As 199); A, anterior end in dorsal view (right setiger 5 removed); B, setiger 30 in anterior view; C, setiger 50 in anterior view; D, setiger 80 in posterior view; E, posterior end in dorsal view. Scale bars: A, E, 0.3 mm; B-D, 36 µm.