Kuwaita Mohammad, 1973

Carrera-Parra, Luis F. & Orensanz, José M., 2002, Revision of Kuwaita Mohammad, 1973 (Annelida, Polychaeta, Lumbrineridae), Zoosystema 24 (2), pp. 273-281 : 275-276

Genus Kuwaita Mohammad, 1973

TYPE SPECIES. — Kuwaita magna Mohammad, 1973 by original designation.

DISTRIBUTION. — The genus Kuwaita is widely distributed in tropical and warm temperate waters. It is currently known from the Indo-Pacific, the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Japan and from western Mexico, but it is likely to inhabit also other warm and temperate seas.

EMENDED DIAGNOSIS. — Three small antennae in the nuchal fold. Parapodia subbiramous; notopodia represented by dorsal cirri and notoaciculae. Setae of two types: limbate capillary setae and simple multidentate hooded hooks. Posterior segments with nephridial papillae, emerging from the body wall not from the parapodia; branchia in anterodorsal position on the body wall. Maxillary apparatus of labidognath type, with five pairs of maxillae; maxillae II shorter than maxillae I (about half in length) with broad sclerotized connecting plates, maxillae IV unidentate, maxillae V free from maxillae IV. Mandibles free from each other along most of their length.

REMARKS

Examination of materials of Kuwaita magna , Lumbriconereis heteropoda Marenzeller, 1879 , Ninoe dolicognatha Rioja, 1941 , Lumbriconereis papillifera Fauvel, 1918 and Lumbrineris ? notocirrata sensu Gallardo 1968 showed that these species form a very homogeneous set. It is therefore considered justified to expand the diagnosis of Kuwaita to include all these species.

Mohammad (1973) diagnosed Kuwaita based on the presence of antennae and on the development of dorsal cirri as found in the type species. We do not assign diagnostic value at the generic level to the degree of development of dorsal cirri because there is a wide variation of this character; we found it ranging from elongated in posterior segments of K. magna to button-like throughout the body in K. heteropoda ( Marenzeller, 1879) n. comb.

The genus is characterized by: 1) maxillary apparatus with maxillae II shorter than maxillae I and with broad connecting plates sclerotized (along the base of maxillae II). Among lumbrinerids, only Eranno has a similar characteristic, but with narrow connecting plates (just a small anterior part in the base of maxilla II); 2) branchiae on posterior segments in dorsal position (not associated with parapodia). Other lumbrinerids, Cenogenus Chamberlin, 1919 and Ninoe have branchiae but they are associated with the postsetal lobe on anterior segment; these branchiae are not homologous with those of Kuwaita ; 3) nephridial papillae on posterior segments emerging from the body wall, not from the parapodia. No other genus of Lumbrineridae has this character. Some lumbrinerids have a “swell” in the same position; they are only seen in mature worms and eggs are released through them (LFCP pers. obs.); 4) antennae, this character is also present in Augeneria Monro, 1930 , Cenogenus and Lysarete .

The first three characters (maxillae II shorter than maxillae I with broad connecting plates, dorsal branchiae on the body wall, and nephridial papillae) are diagnostic to Kuwaita and separate the genus from other lumbrinerids. Discussion of the polarity of these characters and of phylogenetic relationships among lumbrinerid genera is beyond the scope of this article.

Salazar-Vallejo (1989) suggested to erect a new genus to group three Ninoe species described by Rioja (1941) from western Mexico: N. dolicognatha , N. moorei and N. spinosa . The first is shown here to belong to Kuwaita , the position of N. moorei and N. spinosa is uncertain; the types of these species are apparently lost (Caso-Muñoz pers. comm.) and there are no other known materials.

Lumbriconereis notocirrata Fauvel, 1932 probably belongs to Kuwaita , unfortunately the available material in the MNHN (Collection P. Fauvel, Vizayapatan, India) is only a posterior end with 80 setigers. It agrees with the typical characters of the genus (nephridial papillae in ventral position and dorsal branchial lobe), but because the maxillary apparatus could not be studied, the species is not included in this group.

Examination of specimens reported by Gallardo (1968) as “ Lumbrineris ? notocirrata ” showed that they belong to a presumably undescribed species of Kuwaita .