Dear colleagues,
I have been having difficult times working on some Mediterranean species,
and I beg your kind help to solve this problem.
Piromis eruca (Claparede, 1869) is a common, medium-sized flabelligerid,
that can be easily recognized because it has a sediment grains cover
throughout the body. The anterior end has been regarded by Fauvel (1927:119)
as having 8-10, or up to 50-60 branchial filaments, and the neurochaetae are
multiarticulated bidentate spines. These are my problems:
1) There is no type material, and there seems to be no material available
from the type locality (Gulf of Naples),
2) The stiff body implies that during sieving most neurochaete are broken,
but their fine structure is much needed to solve if there is more than a
single genus sharing this body pattern,
3) After the examination of almost all type material and many additional
specimens, the number of branchial filaments shows very little variation, if
any at all. Thus, there may be more than a single species in the
Mediterranean sea (plus Northwestern African shores),
4) Posterior neurochaetae may be multiarticulate, although articles become
longer, or they can be ankylosed, with the articles feebly marked. Together
with the difference in the branchial features, this may be a very important
feature, but more specimens are needed to clarify this.
These two types of neurochaetae may be used to define separate genera. So
far, I'm restricting Piromis for those species provided with multiarticulate
neurochaetae in all chaetigers, and Trophoniella is being expanded to
include those species provided with ankylosed neurochaetae in posterior
chaetigers.
However, this means that Trophonia eruca Claparede, which was regarded as
the type species for Balanochaeta Chamberlin, 1919, is a member of Piromis.
If not, then Balanochaeta must take precedence over Trophoniella.
Nevetheless, the lack of additional materials and some of them in an
adequate quality as to be proposed as neotypes, is still wanting.
Hope you have some specimens and let me study them. If that is the case,
please send them to:
Sergio I. Salazar-Vallejo
Depto. Ecologia Acuatica
ECOSUR, Apdo. Postal 424
Avenida Centenario km 5.5
Chetumal, Quintana Roo
77000 MEXICO
phone: 52 (983) 835 0440, Ext. 4303
Thanks a lot in advance for your help. Cordially yours,
Sergio
