A new species of Ampharete (Annelida: Ampharetidae) from the West Shetland shelf (NE Atlantic Ocean), with two updated keys to the species of the genus in North Atlantic waters

Julio Parapar,Ruth Barnich,Juan Moreira

doi:10.5852/ejt.2019.531

Abstract

Ampharete oculicirrata sp. nov. (Annelida: Ampharetidae) is described from samples collected by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and Marine Scotland Science, in the West Shetland Shelf NCMPA in the NE Atlantic. This species is characterised by a very small body size, thin and slender paleae, twelve thoracic and eleven abdominal uncinigers, presence of eyes both in the prostomium and the pygidium, the latter provided with a pair of long lateral cirri. The external micro-morphology of the new taxon was studied using scanning electron microscopy and compared with species described or reported from the North Atlantic. Two complementary keys to all species of Ampharete in the area are also provided.

Highlights

The genus Ampharete Malmgren, 1866, as defined by Jirkov (2011), is a species-rich genus of sedimentdwelling polychaetes comprising about 40 nominal species worldwide (Parapar et al 2012)
The morphological characters of A. oculicirrata sp. nov. suggest that this species might fit within the clade constituted by A. santillani / A. lindstroemi / A. undecima as presented by Parapar et al (2018)
Both species have a small body size and delicate paleae, which are only slightly longer than the thoracic notochaetae, and prostomial tip strongly dyed with methyl blue

Summary

Introduction

The genus Ampharete Malmgren, 1866, as defined by Jirkov (2011), is a species-rich genus of sedimentdwelling polychaetes comprising about 40 nominal species worldwide (Parapar et al 2012). The. traditional generic diagnosis of Ampharete (e.g., Holthe 1986) has been emended by Jirkov (1994, 2001, 2011) and followed by a number of authors (e.g., Imajima et al 2012; Parapar et al 2012, 2018; Alvestad et al 2014). The North Atlantic species of Ampharete have been studied by Holthe (1986), Jirkov (1997, 2001), Parapar et al (2012, 2018), and Alvestad et al (2014) among others. Two updated complimentary keys to all species of the genus Ampharete in North Atlantic waters based on Parapar et al (2012) are provided

Materials and methods

Results

Discussion