A new species of Rhynchospio (Annelida: Spionidae) in South Africa

Abstract

More than 60% of the spionid polychaetes recorded in South Africa to date have type localities from outside the region. One of these is Rhynchospio glutaea (Ehlers, 1897), originally described from Argentina, which was suggested to have arrived in Table Bay via shipping. Recently specimens conforming to the description of R. glutaea were collected on the south coast of South Africa from within the effluent outflow pipes from an on-shore abalone farm. The species, here named Rhynchospio mzansi n. sp., belongs to the Rhynchospio glutaea complex, and has tridentate hooded hooks that usually start on chaetiger 15–18 and up to four pairs of dorsal anal cirri. Four molecular markers confirm that the South African material is a previously undescribed species that is the most basal of the other species within the R. glutaea complex and genetically closest to R. glutaea and R. arenincola Hartmann, 1936, from the west coast of North America. This is the first species in this genus described for South Africa.