Gesiella, PETTIBONE, 1976

Bonifácio, Paulo & Menot, Lénaïck, 2019, New genera and species from the Equatorial Pacific provide phylogenetic insights into deep-sea Polynoidae (Annelida), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 185, pp. 555-635 : 625

GESIELLA PETTIBONE, 1976

T y p e s p e c i e s: G e s i e l l a j a m e e n s i s ( Hartmann-Schröder, 1974).

The genus is monotypic. The type species was originally described as Macellicephala by Hartmann- Schröder (1974). Pettibone (1976) incorrectly considered the presence of small spherical lobes with distal filaments as lateral antennae. Later, Muir (1982) erected the subfamily Gesiellinae Muir, 1982 for this species based on the unique diagnostic character, presence of filamentous sensory organs on the cirrophores of the dorsal cirri. However, Pettibone (1994) did not agree and finally placed this genus within the subfamily Macellicephalinae .