Travisia novaezealandiae Benham, 1927

Avery, Lynda, Vodopyanov, Stephan & Wilson, Robin S., 2023, New species of Travisia Johnston, 1840 (Annelida, Travisiidae Hartmann-Schröder, 1971) from south-eastern Australia, Memoirs of Museum Victoria (Mem. Mus. Vic.) 82, pp. 133-142 : 136

Travisia novaezealandiae Benham, 1927 new status

Material examined. New Zealand “North coast … stomach of Schnapper”, NHMUK 1928.2 .29.53 holotype Terra Nova Expedition .

Diagnosis. Body comprising 37–39 chaetigers; annulation pattern changes at chaetigers 14–15; posterior-most segments crenellated; branchiae present on 35–38 chaetigers.

Description. Body comprising 38–40 segments; 37–39 chaetigers; 0–2 achaetous posterior segment(s) (cannot determine exactly, but no more than two achaetous posterior segments).

Prostomium shorter than maximum width. Mid-ventral groove absent. Mouth located on chaetiger 1.

Chaetiger 1 biannulate; 2 triannulate; subsequent anterior chaetigers triannulate; annulation pattern changes at chaetigers 14–15; posterior chaetigers biannulate (annulations much more obvious than on anterior segments).

Branchiae about as long as diameter of body. Branchiae first present on chaetiger 2; present on 35–38 chaetigers (apparently, although many posterior branchiae are lost/damaged – the number of posterior abranchiate segments is in the range 0–2).

Parapodial lobes present; notopodial lobes commence chaetiger 6; neuropodial lobes commence chaetiger 3. Nephridiopores first present chaetiger 3; last present chaetiger 14. Posterior-most segments crenellated.

Pygidial lobes at least 6, the holotype is too damaged to determine exact number of lobes.

Remarks. Travisia olens novaezealandiae Benham, 1927 (type locality north coast of New Zealand) is here raised to species status on the basis of the following differences from T. olens Ehlers, 1897 (type locality Strait of Magellan): in T. novaezealandiae the annulation pattern changes at chaetigers 14–15 (at about chaetiger 20 in T. olens ); in T. novaezealandiae the pre-pygidial segments lack a circlet of papillae (in T. olens a single ring of papillae encircles the last segment); T. novaezealandiae has at least six pygidial lobes (12–15 in T. olens ). There are other apparent differences, for example, in the chaetigers on which branchiae and parapodial lobes occur, but these may be subject to observational errors, especially of T. olens novaezealandiae Benham, 1927 , the holotype of which was collected from a fish gut and is damaged.