Namalycastis Hartman, 1959

Pradhan, Jyoshna, Villalobos-Guerrero, Tulio F. & Mohapatra, Anil, 2025, Description of two new species of nereidids (Annelida: Nereididae) from West Bengal, India, Bay of Bengal, Zootaxa 5729 (2), pp. 335-348 : 338

Namalycastis Hartman, 1959

Type species. Lycastis abiuma Grube, 1872 , by subsequent designation (Hartman, 1959).

Diagnosis (modified from Wilson et al. 2023). Prostomial anterior region indented, sub-trapezoid, longitudinal groove present; posterior region shorter than anterior region. Antennae present, subconical. Palpophores barrel-shaped, smooth, rarely grooved. Palpostyles spherical. Four eyes present. Tentacular belt equal to or shorter than chaetiger 1. Four pairs of tentacular cirri; tentacular cirrophores well-defined, sometimes indistinct. Jaws dentate. Maxillary and oral rings of proboscis cylindrical, without papillae or paragnaths. Paired oesophageal caeca absent. Segmental glandular patches absent. Notopodia strongly reduced, without lobes. Dorsal cirrostyle attached distally to dorsal cirrophore throughout body. Dorsal cirrophore short and cylindrical anteriorly, extended and flattened posteriorly. Dorsal, median and ventral ligules absent. Neuropodial postchaetal lobe absent. Neuropodial superior lobe poorly developed, papilliform. Neuropodial inferior lobe present. Ventral cirrostyle single. Notoaciculae present in first two chaetigers. Notochaetae present (rarely absent), sesquigomph spinigers. Supracicular neurochaetae: sesquigomph spinigers present, heterogomph spinigers seldom present, heterogomph falcigers present (sometimes absent); blades of falcigers smooth or serrated, teeth slightly longer proximally than distally. Subacicular neurochaetae: heterogomph spinigers present; heterogomph falcigers present (seldom absent); blade of spinigers evenly and finely serrated throughout, sometimes coarsely serrated proximally; falcigers sometimes with extra-long blades. Pygidium multi-incised rim. Oocytes spherical.

Remarks. When compared to the overall nereidin,gymnonereidin,or dendronereidin members,the namanereidins bear a simple morphology in their proboscis and parapodia. The diagnosis of Namalycastis provided is based on the new Nereididae genera established by Villalobos-Guerrero et al. (2022) and following Wilson et al. (2023).