Abstract
Type material of several polychaete species described by Enrique Rioja from Mexican coasts are lost, and the current status of some species is doubtful. Nereis oligohalina (Rioja, 1946) was described from the Gulf of Mexico, but it has been considered a junior synonym of Nereis occidentalis Hartman, 1945, or regarded as a distinct species with an amphiamerican distribution. On the other hand, Nereis garwoodi González-Escalante & Salazar-Vallejo, 2003, described from Chetumal Bay, Caribbean coasts, could be confused with Nereis oligohalina. In order to clarify these uncertainties, Nereis oligohalina is redescribed based on specimens from the Mexican Gulf of Mexico, including a proposed neotype; further, Nereis garwoodi is redescribed including the selection of lectotype and paralectotypes, and Nereis confusa sp. n. is described with material from the Gulf of California. A key for the identification of similar species and some comments about speciation in nereidid polychaetes are also included.
Highlights
Among the non-marine polychaetes, the family Nereididae de Blainville, 1818 has the largest number of brackish and freshwater species (61), and 31 out of these species occur in estuaries and coastal lagoons (Glasby et al 2009)
Villalobos-Guerrero, pers. comm.); L. tecolutlensis was regarded as a junior synonym of Namanereis amboinensis (Pflugfelder, 1933), nowadays a widespread species (Glasby 1999); and N. oligohalina has been regarded as amphiamerican (Dean 2001), or restricted to Atlantic coasts (Santos and Lana 2003, Liñero-Arana and Díaz-Díaz 2007)
An oligochaete), N. caerulea, N. gigantea (after Hartman 1959:259, same as Hermodice carunculata (Pallas, 1766), rendering it a nomen oblitum because it would have priority over Pallas’ name), N. pelagica, and N. noctiluca. It was Hartman (1948:63) who fixed the type species, and this should be regarded as a subsequent designation (ICZN 1999, Art. 69.1), in contrast to Bakken and Wilson (2005) who regarded it as an original designation
Summary
Among the non-marine polychaetes, the family Nereididae de Blainville, 1818 has the largest number of brackish and freshwater species (61), and 31 out of these species occur in estuaries and coastal lagoons (Glasby et al 2009). Of the 40 species of nereidid species recorded from the Gulf of Mexico (Fauchald and Solís-Weiss 2009), seven are reported in brackish or freshwater areas, and among the 10 species belonging to Nereis, only N. oligohalina (Rioja, 1946) is reported from estuaries (Glasby et al 2009). Rioja (1946) dealt with three estuarine nereidids from Veracruz, Mexico; he regarded one as a known species, Neanthes succinea (Leuckart, 1847), and the two others were described as new: Neanthes oligohalina and Lycastopsis tecolutlensis. The former species is regarded as belonging in Alitta, but it differs from the North Sea species The Caribbean species N. garwoodi González-Escalante & Salazar-Vallejo, 2003 could be confused with N. oligohalina, and without an updated description of the latter, a synonymy can be anticipated
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