Pseudonereis

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 : 106

Pseudonereis sp. cf. P. variegata ( Grube, 1857)

Nereis (Nereilepas) variegata Grube, 1857: 164 .

Pseudonereis variegata . Hartman 1959: 279; Day 1965: 19; Fishelson 1971: 126.

Material examined. Iran, Persian Gulf: Qeshm Island- West coast of Basaidu , ( ZUTC 6148 ) ; Qeshm Island- Namakdan , 1 specimen ( ZUTC 6171 ) .

Description. Material examined about 40 chaetigers. Posterior part of the body is missing. Color in alcohol is light. Prostomium longer than wide. Longest tentacular cirri extend back to chaetiger 6. Jaws with dentate cutting edge, black/brown serrated with 6 teeth. Maxillary ring of pharynx with paragnaths, arranged as follows: Area I = 1 conical paragnath; Areas II– IV arranged in regular comb-like rows; Area II = 24–25 p-bar paragnaths in four rows; Area III = 60 p-bar paragnaths in four rows; Area IV = 50 p-bar paragnaths in 5 rows, additional cones and 4–6 pbars towards the jaws. Area V = 1 conical paragnath, Area VI = 1 large shield-shaped bar, Area VII–VIII = 22, conical paragnaths and p-bars in two alternating rows. Prechaetal notopodial lobe absent, acicular process absent. Ventral notopodial ligule stout, rounded; in posterior chaetigers digitiform. Neuropodial lobe with two ligules in anterior chaetigers; acicular ligule longer than ventral neuropodial ligule. Neuropodial postchaetal lobe present, in posterior chaetigers triangular. Ventral neuropodial ligule of anterior chaetigers well developed, smaller in length than acicular neuropodial ligule throughout body. Ventral cirrus 0.5 times shorter than ventral neuropodial ligule. Anterior neurochaetae, dorsal fascicle, are homogomph spinigers and heterogomph falcigers, blades serrated. Posterior neurochaetae, dorsal fascicle are similar to anterior one.

Remarks. The material described in the present study is similar to both Pseudonereis trimaculata from the Gulf of Oman described by Yousefi et al. (2011) and to P. variegata by Bakken (2007) in some characters. However, there are notable differences, for example, the present material has a large single conical paragnath in Area V, while P. trimaculata has three. Pseudonereis trimaculata has black spots on the parapodia, which has been used by Horst (1924) to distinguish P. trimaculata from other described Pseudonereis taxa. The present specimen lacks the black pigment spots.

Distribution. Suez Canal, Red Sea ( Wehe & Fiege 2002), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. South America, Atlantic coast ( Bakken 2007).