Prosphaerosyllis San Martín, 1984a

Barroso, Rômulo, Paiva, Paulo Cesar De, Nogueira, João Miguel De Matos & Fukuda, Marcelo Veronesi, 2017, Deep sea Syllidae (Annelida, Phyllodocida) from Southwestern Atlantic, Zootaxa 4221 (4), pp. 401-430 : 413

Genus Prosphaerosyllis San Martín, 1984a

Type species. Sphaerosyllis xarifae Hartmann-Schröder, 1960 , designated by San Martín (1984a).

Diagnosis. Body short, covered dorsally and ventrally with numerous papillae, including on palps, cirri and parapodia. Prostomium with 3 antennae, 4 eyes and usually 1 pair of anterior eyespots. Peristomium with 1 pair of peristomial cirri. Dorsal cirri usually present on all chaetigers, absent on chaetiger 2 in a few species. Antennae, peristomial cirri, dorsal cirri throughout and anal cirri with spherical base (cirrophore) and pointed, distally blunt tip (cirrostyle) usually retractable within cirrophore, at least from midbody. Parapodial glands usually absent. Blades of falcigers usually unidentate and relatively short, with dorso-ventral gradation in length. Aciculae subdistally inflated and slightly curved, with acute tip. Pharynx long and wide, usually not surrounded by soft papillae on opening, pharyngeal tooth conical, usually away from anterior margin; proventricle massive, about same size as pharynx ( Fukuda et al. 2009). Reproduction with dorsal brooding of eggs.

Remarks. San Martín (1984a) recognized two subgenera of Sphaerosyllis based on morphology, Sphaerosyllis and Prosphaerosyllis . Although this division was not immediately accepted by some authors (Russell 1989; Kudenov & Harris 1995), San Martín (2003) raised Prosphaerosyllis to the generic level, taking into account the brooding system, which is different from one genus to another, and this proposal has been adopted by subsequent authors ( Böggemann & Westheide 2004; San Martín 2005; Fukuda et al. 2009). In Brazil, three species of Prosphaerosyllis were already reported, P. brachycephala Fukuda, Yunda-Guarin & Nogueira, 2009 , P. isabelllae and P. xarifae ( Fukuda et al. 2009) .