Cirratulidae Ryckholt, 1851

Blake, James A., 2023, New Species of Cirratulidae (Annelida) from Continental Slope and Abyssal Depths off Eastern Australia, Records of the Australian Museum (Rec. Aust. Mus.) 75 (3), pp. 249-270 : 250

Family Cirratulidae Ryckholt, 1851

Type genus: Cirratulus Lamarck, 1818

Diagnosis. Body elongate with numerous short segments; not divided into distinct regions, but anterior and/or posterior segments sometimes expanded and crowded. Prostomium narrow and conical or broad and wedge shaped, without appendages; eyespots present or absent; paired dorsolateral nuchal organs present. Peristomium achaetous, smooth or with two or more distinct annuli. Grooved dorsal tentacles arise as a single pair or as multiple groups of filaments on posterior margin of peristomium or on one or more anterior setigerous segments. Branchiae long, filamentous, usually occurring over numerous segments. Parapodia biramous with rudimentary podial lobes. Setae simple, including capillaries, acicular spines or bidentate hooks. Pygidium a simple lobe sometimes with a sub-anal disk, or terminal cirri. Pharynx ventral, unarmed. Sexual and asexual reproduction may occur.

Remarks. The Cirratulidae currently include about 300 known species ( Blake & Magalhães, 2019; Blake, 2019, 2021; Blake & Dean, 2019; Grosse et al., 2021) that are generally separated into genera and species having numerous tentacular filaments (multitentaculates, about 80 species) and species having two tentacular filaments or dorsal tentacles (bitentaculates, about 220 species). The multitentaculates are mostly found in nearshore habitats, rarely offshore, whereas the bitentaculates are found in all habitats including the deep sea. The discovery of new species in recent years has mostly involved bitentaculates due to emphasis on previously unexplored offshore and deep-water habitats. In the present study seven new species are described in four of the bitentaculate genera: Aphelochaeta (2), Chaetocirratulus (2), Chaetozone (2), and Kirkegaardia (1).

The following species are included in this article:

Aphelochaeta jubata sp. nov.

Aphelochaeta readi sp. nov.

Chaetocirratulus bathyalis sp. nov.

Chaetocirratulus glebalis sp. nov.

Chaetozone abyssalis sp. nov.

Chaetozone adusta sp. nov.

Kirkegaardia glabra sp. nov.