Dendronereis Peters, 1854

Hsueh, Pan-Wen, 2019, Two new species of nereidids (Annelida, Polychaeta) from Taiwan, Zootaxa 4652 (3), pp. 544-556 : 545

Genus Dendronereis Peters, 1854 , emended

Dendronereis Peters, 1854: 612 .— Fauvel, 1932: 85.— Fauchald, 1977, 88.— Misra, 1999, 154.

Type species. Dendronereis arborifera Peters, 1854

Diagnosis (new feature from the present species highlighted in bold). Prostomium deeply split anteriorly, two pairs of antennae, and biarticulate palps. Peristomium with four pairs of tentacular cirri. Eversible pharynx smooth or with papillae. Parapodia of chaetigers 1 and 2 sub-biramous, notopodia with only notopodial dorsal ligules, subsequent chaetigers biramous. Notopodial prechaetal lobe present. Branchiae present as subdivisions of the dorsal cirri, bipinnate or pinnate. Neuropodia with multifid acicular lobes in anterior chaetigers. Notopodial chaetae homogomph and hemigomph (=sesquigomph) spinigers. Neuropodial chaetae homogomph spinigers with or without blunt-tipped short blades.

Remarks. Misra (1999) included hemigomph spinigers, as defined by Fauchald (1977), to the generic diagnosis in order to accommodate a newly described species of the genus. Hutching & Reid (1990) referred “hemigomph” as sesquigomph for defining chaetae with a 3:2 ratio between the boss and opposing prong of the shaft.

Of the four species currently in the genus only D. aestuarina and D. pinnaticirris have been reported from East and Southeast Asia ( Pillai 1965; Sun and Yang 2004; Chang 2009; Salazar-Vallejo et al. 2014; Glasby et al. 2016). In Taiwan, D. pinnaticirris is listed on the website of the Taiwan Biodiversity Information Facility (TaiBIF) but has not been formally reported. This record might correspond with the species described below.