Aloha,
I seem to be confused. A Paradoneis is very important to some work in a
southeast New Zealand intertidal inlet. I would normally have called it
Paradoneis lyra (Southern 1914). I just read a paper (citation below)
with new descriptions including a new Paradoneis eliasoni. While the
paper is well illustrated it seems to be missing some discussion of the
characters needed to resolve some splits (or I may be missing some
convention). Paradoneis eliasoni appears to be described from 2
anterior fragments and an 'almost complete' worm. I don't have a copy
of the original Paradoneis lyra description. According to Table 3 in
the publication, P. eliasoni has acicular neurochaetae in the far
posterior segments. I grabbed some of our 2000+ specimens and they all
have them. The table includes a strike rather than a question mark (no
mention?) of these for P. lyra (Southern 1914). Both type localities
are from the other side of the planet, P. lyra capensis (Day 1955) is
from South Africa, but the pre-branchial notopodial lobes are present in
our specimens, but Day may not have had specimens this large. Any thoughts?
My diagnosis of our beast (made before seeing the paper): Conical
prostomium slightly longer than wide, slit nuchal organs, branchiae
start on chaetiger 4 and continue for 11-12 chaetigers [a little shorter
than segment width), no eyes, no median antenna/scar, small notopodial
lobes present on pre-branchial chaetigers larger in branchial chaetiger
smaller in postbranchial chaetigers then very proporitionally large in
extreme posterior, earliest observed forked chaetae on chaetiger 3 only
one observed in each notopodium, posterior chaetigers with stout
acicular chaetae (one each neuropodium) which is weakly hooked, 3
pygidial cirri. [I didn't note the capillary numbers]
Aguirrezabalaga, F. and Gil, J. (2009) Paraonidae (Polychaeta) from
the Capbreton Canyon (Bay of Biscay, NE Atlantic) with the description
of eight new species. Scientia Marina 73(4): 631-666.
Cheers,
Brian
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brian Paavo, PhD
Benthic Science Limited
1 Porterfield Street
Macandrew Bay
Dunedin 9014
New Zealand
P/F +64-3-476-1712
M +64-021-189-3459
http://www.benthicscience.com
.................................
