Ophelina Örsted, 1843

Parapar, Julio, Al-Kandari, Manal, Barroso, María & Moreira, Juan, 2023, The genus Ophelina Örsted, 1843 (Annelida: Opheliidae) in the coast of Kuwait (northern Indian Ocean), with the description of a new species, European Journal of Taxonomy 870 (1), pp. 1-29 : 3-4

Genus Ophelina Örsted, 1843

Ophelina Örsted, 1843: 45 .

Ammotrypane Rathke, 1843: 188 .

Ladice Kinberg, 1866: 257 .

Terpsichore Kinberg, 1866: 257

Omaria Grube, 1869: 66 .

Urosiphon Chamberlin, 1919: 384 .

Type species

Ophelina acuminata Örsted, 1843 .

Diagnosis

[Following Wiklund et al. (2019) and Blake & Maciolek (2020).]

Body elongate, with deep ventral groove and two lateral grooves along entire body length. Prostomium conical, sometimes with terminal palpode; eyes present or absent. Branchiae present or absent; if present, beginning on chaetiger 2, continuing to posterior end, sometimes missed from middle or last posterior chaetigers; branchiae single, cirriform. Segmental lateral eyes absent. Noto- and neuropodia with small fascicles of capillary chaetae; short ventral lobe present; small button-like dorsal cirrus sometimes present. Pygidium with anal tube sometimes bearing long unpaired anal cirrus, a pair of basal papillae, and several pairs of marginal papillae.

Remarks

In Ophelina , the terminology used to refer to the anal tube and its features is quite heterogeneous. Here, we retain the terms “anal tube”, “unpaired anal cirrus”, “pair of basal papillae” and “paired marginal cirri” following recent work ( Parapar & Moreira 2015; Moreira & Parapar 2017; Magalhães et al. 2019; Wiklund et al. 2019). The “anal tube” has been previously referred to as “anal syphon” ( Willey 1905), “anal funnel” (e.g., Fauvel 1932; Takahashi 1938; Tampi 1958; Pillai 1961; Eibye-Jacobsen 2002), “pavillon/tube postanal” (e.g., Caullery 1944), “pygidial organ/anal funnel” (e.g., Gallardo 1968) or “pygidial funnel” (e.g., Neave & Glasby 2013). The “unpaired anal cirrus” has also been described as “unpaired cirrus” (e.g., Horst 1919; Hartmann-Schröder & Parker 1995), “papille/cirre impaire” (e.g., Fauvel 1902, 1927), “branchie anale” (e.g., Caullery 1944), “ventral cirrus” (e.g., Kongsrud et al. 2011; Wiklund et al. 2019), “anal cirrus” (e.g., Tampi 1958; Pillai 1961; Parapar et al. 2011; Gopal et al. 2016), “anal branchiae” (e.g., Gallardo 1968) and “midventral cirrus/filament” ( Barroso & Paiva 2013). Regarding the “pair of basal papillae”, these have been reported as “papilles ventrales” ( Fauvel 1902, 1927), “couple of cirri at base” ( Horst 1919), “ventral papillae” ( Fauvel 1932), “branchie anale” ( Caullery 1944), “ventral cirri” ( Pillai 1961), “anal cirri” ( Gallardo 1968), “anal papillae” ( Hartmann-Schröder & Parker 1995) and “paired anal cirri” ( Neave & Glasby 2013). Finally, the “paired marginal papillae” have been named as “papilles latérales” ( Fauvel 1902, 1927), “border cirri” ( Horst 1919), “papilles des bords latéraux” ( Caullery 1944), “border papillae” ( Tampi 1958; Pillai 1961; Gallardo 1968), “marginal cirri/margin with cirri/cirri on margin” ( Gallardo 1968; Kongsrud et al. 2011; Wiklund et al. 2019), “papillae of margin” ( Eibye-Jacobsen 2002; Barroso & Paiva 2013), “margin anal cirri” ( Neave & Glasby 2013) and “pygidium marginal papillae” ( Parapar et al. 2021a).

We added to the diagnosis of the genus the potential presence of “parapodial dorsal cirrus” that has been observed at least in several species, including the new species described below.