Lepidasthenia indet.

Gunton, Laetitia M., Kupriyanova, Elena K., Alvestad, Tom, Avery, Lynda, Blake, James A., Biriukova, Olga, Boeggemann, Markus, Borisova, Polina, Budaeva, Nataliya, Burghardt, Ingo, Capa, Maria, Georgieva, Magdalena N., Glasby, Christopher J., Hsueh, Pan-Wen, Hutchings, Pat, Jimi, Naoto, Kongsrud, Jon A., Langeneck, Joachim, Meissner, Karin, Murray, Anna, Nikolic, Mark, Paxton, Hannelore, Ramos, Dino, Schulze, Anja, Sobczyk, Robert, Watson, Charlotte, Wiklund, Helena, Wilson, Robin S., Zhadan, Anna & Zhang, Jinghuai, 2021, Annelids of the eastern Australian abyss collected by the 2017 RV ' Investigator' voyage, ZooKeys 1020, pp. 1-198 : 1

Lepidasthenia indet. Fig. 23B

Diagnosis.

Single specimen incomplete with at least 46 segments and 19 pairs of elytra. Elytra thin, colourless, fragile, without macrotubercles, on segments 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 26, 29, 32, 36, 39, 42, 45+. Nuchal flap absent. Facial tubercle present as small round flap ventral to antennae. Lateral antennae and median antenna terminally inserted. Two pairs of eyes present. Notochaetae absent, notopodia reduced to acicular lobe on neuropodia. Neurochaetae slender and of two types: long, thinner ones with spinous rows and fine blunt tips; additional wider, falcigerous ones with spinous rows subdistally on inflated region and larger tooth below distal tooth (tip) which is bifid or bidentate. Neuropodial prechaetal lobe slightly longer than postchaetal lobes. Papillae present on surface of neuropodium ventral to ventral cirrus.

Remarks.

There are 42 species of Lepidasthenia worldwide ( Read and Fauchald 2020), and several have been reported from Australian waters, but this specimen displays differences such as lack of nuchal flap (cf. Lepidasthenia michaelseni Augener, 1913) and lack of notochaetae as well as two types of neurochaetae (cf. Lepidasthenia australiensis (Augener, 1927). Further complete material is needed for identification to species.

Records.

1 specimen. Suppl. material 1: op. 80 (AM).

Figures

Figure 23. Polynoidae 2 A Harmothoe sp. 5 anterior end, dorsal view, and elytra (AM W. 52581) B Lepidasthenia indet. dorsal view, pharynx extended (AM W. 51580) C Macellicephalinae sp. 5 anterior end, dorsal view (AM W. 52014) D Polaruschakov sp. dorsal view (AM W. 52580). Scale bars: 5 mm.