Flabelliderma claparedei ( de Saint-Joseph, 1898 ) Salazar-Vallejo, 2007

Salazar-Vallejo, Sergio I., 2007, Revision of Flabelliderma Hartman, 1969 (Polychaeta: Flabelligeridae), Journal of Natural History 41 (33 - 36), pp. 2037-2061 : 2047-2049

Flabelliderma claparedei ( de Saint-Joseph, 1898) n. comb.

( Figure 3 )

Flabelligera claparedi de Saint-Joseph 1898, p 363 –365, Plate 21, Figures 176–179.

Type material

Northeastern Atlantic Ocean : holotype (MNHN-447) collected at Remardy , close to St. Jean de Luz (43 ° 229480N, 01 ° 409120W), Aquitaine, Gulf of Biscay, southwestern France, rocky shores, 31 March 1892, A. de Saint-Joseph, coll.

Additional material

Four specimens, three compressed, another one dried out (MNHN-448) collected in the same locality, 27 July 1908, A. de Saint-Joseph, coll. One specimen (MNHN-449) collected in the same locality, 30 July 1900, A. de Saint-Joseph, coll.

Description

Holotype (MNHN-447) complete, pale brown, depressed (has been squashed during preservation), almost without papillae, with a longitudinal dorsal dissection reaching chaetiger 30 ( Figure 3B ). It is 34 mm long, 7 mm wide, cephalic cage 5 mm long, 34 chaetigers. Better specimens (MNHN-449) with body densely papillated; papillae forming long clavate sediment tubercles dorsally (about 20 per segment), abundant, elongate, globular, fragile; smaller laterally and ventrally ( Figure 3A ). Most body papillae brushed off, with a thick opaque tunic, with fine sediment particles adhered, forming clavate sediment masses of two different sizes dorsally, all small ventrally ( Figure 3D ).

Prostomium low cone (damaged), with four dark eyes. Caruncle well developed, lateral keels elevated, thin, median one wider, swollen. Palps lost in holotype; non-type specimen (MNHN-448) with palps large, pale, corrugated, appearing annulated); palp lobes rounded, elevated. Lateral lips dark, well developed; ventral lip reduced, dorsal lip even more reduced. Branchiae all lost in holotype; non-type specimen (MNHN-448) dissected. Branchiae arranged in rows; each lateral group with about 60 filaments, decreasing in size ventrally. Nephridial lobes contracted, as long as palps, rounded, placed at the level of prostomium ( Figure 3C ).

Cephalic cage chaetae as long as one-seventh body length, or five-sevenths body width; chaetae reducing in size middorsally and midventrally; 36–40 notochaetae, 30–32 neurochaetae. Anterior dorsal margin of first chaetiger smooth (papillae eroded). Anterior chaetigers without especially long papillae. Chaetigers 1–3 of about the same length. Chaetal transition from cephalic cage to body chaetae abrupt; chaetiger 2 with compound neurohooks. Gonopodial lobes not seen.

Parapodia well developed, lateral; median neuropodia ventrolateral ( Figure 3D ). Notopodial lobes flat, smooth projected lobes. Dorsal sediment tubercles about as long as notopodial lobes, mostly in two different sizes; soft, delicate, with many globular shortstemmed papillae. Neuropodia conical projected lobes, with globular and globularmucronate papillae, globular ones uncommon on neuropodial lobes.

Median notochaetae arranged in a short transverse line; 12–14 multiarticulated capillaries per fascicle, about as long as body width, with articles long, basally and medially, becoming slightly shorter distally. Neurochaetae multiarticulated hooks from chaetiger 2, one hook per ramus. Handle articulation with three longer articles medially, first shorter, two others of about the same length; more distal articles shorter. Crest darker, tapering, acute, only tip markedly curved ( Figure 3E ). Posterior end tapering distally, truncated; pygidium with anus terminal, as a rounded muscular lobe; no anal cirri.

Discussion

In the original description, there were detailed measurements of article length in each type of chaetae, but little information about the general aspect of the worm. However, there were two statements that are indicative of this new generic placement; de Saint-Joseph (1898, p 363) stated that the worm had sediment on the outer cuticle: ‘‘…entourné d’une couche épaisse de mucus melangée de sable et de vase…’’ and that it had notochaetal lobes with globular papillae, some with a distal lobe, with long stems (1898, p 364, Plate 21, Figures 178, 179): ‘‘Les papilles qui accompagnent les soies sont lagéniformes (fig. 176); les autres ont 3 formes différentes: 1 ° en massue (fig. 177); 2 ° sphérique (fig. 178); 3 ° sphérique surmountée d’une pointe cylindrique.’’ However, the holotype had been manipulated too much and most papillae and sediment tubercles were removed; so, for the original description, these features were based on a curled specimen that had not been brushed before.

Because of the shape of the dorsal tubercles Flabelliderma claparedei ( de Saint-Joseph, 1898) n. comb. resembles F. papillosa and F. lighti n. sp; however, F. claparedei differs by having dorsal sediment tubercles of two different sizes, and its notopodial lobes are foliose, instead of cylindrical or globose, as is the case in the other species. The original name employed by de Saint-Joseph, ‘‘ claparedii ’’ must be modified since it was formed after Edouard Claparède, it must be claparedei .

Distribution

Only known from the type locality, St. Jean de Luz , southwestern France, in rocky shores .

Figures

Figure 3. Flabelliderma claparedei (de Saint-Joseph, 1898) n. comb. (A) Non-type specimen (MNHN-449) in dorsal view; (B) holotype (MNHN-447), anterior end in dorsal view; (C) eversible anterior end (MNHN-448) in frontal view, distorted by compression; branchiae and palps removed; (D) close-up of the median region, in ventral view, showing the sediment tubercles (MNHN-449); (E) same, tip of neurohook from a median parapodium, surrounding cuticle and papillae removed. Scale bars: 2 mm (A, B); 1.25 mm (C); 1.00 mm (D); 40 Mm (E).