Geminofilum, Capa, Maria, Nygren, Arne, Parapar, Julio, Bakken, Torkild, Meissner, Karin & Moreira, Juan, 2019

Capa, Maria, Nygren, Arne, Parapar, Julio, Bakken, Torkild, Meissner, Karin & Moreira, Juan, 2019, Systematic re-structure and new species of Sphaerodoridae (Annelida) after morphological revision and molecular phylogenetic analyses of the North East Atlantic fauna, ZooKeys 845, pp. 1-97 : 28-30

Geminofilum gen. n.

Sphaerodoropsis Hartman & Fauchald, 1971: 69 (in part); Fauchald 1974: 261 (in part); Borowski 1994: 23 (in part); Moreira 2012: 30 (in part); Capa et al. 2014: 18 (in part).

Type species.

Sphaerodorum distichum Eliason, 1962.

Diagnosis.

Body short and cylindrical. Head with a median and a pair of lateral antennae; antenniform papillae absent or present; all appendages short. Tubercles sessile, spherical or hemispherical, arranged in two transverse rows per segment. Additional epithelial papillae on dorsal (sometimes absent) and ventral surfaces. Parapodia with elongated ventral cirri, as long as acicular lobe. Stout hooks in anterior chaetigers absent. All chaetae compound, unidentate, with serrated edge.

Remarks.

Analyses of molecular data presented here reveal that members of previously considered Sphaerodoropsis Group 3, according to Borowski (1994), form a monophyletic group, morphologically quite distinct (with dorsal macrotubercles, arranged in two transverse rows per segment and genetically (long branch compared to other clades; Fig. 1). This clade is sister to Sphaerephesia sensu stricto in the present study (sphaerodorids with four dorsal longitudinal rows of sessile macrotubercles). Since the type species of Sphaerodoropsis , Sphaerodoropsis sphaerulifer does not possess the main diagnostic features of this clade, and instead bears dorsal macrotubercles in a single transverse row (e.g., Moore 1909, Kudenov 1987), the erection of a new genus for accommodating these other species is needed. Geminofilum distichum (Eliason, 1962), comb. n., is the selected type species of the new genus because it is the oldest described species in the group that has been included in the present molecular analyses.

It is here assumed that Geminofilum gen. n. includes all sphaerodorids presenting two transverse rows of macrotubercles, but confirmation of this hypothesis is needed, since several of the species with this morphological feature have not been included in the analyses. Geminofilum gen. n. would therefore be represented by the following 15 species, all of which require nomenclatural changes:

Geminofilum arctowskyensis ( Hartmann-Schröder & Rosenfeldt, 1988), comb. n.

Type locality: South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, 265 m.

Geminofilum bisphaeroserialis ( Hartmann-Schröder, 1974), comb. n.

Type locality: South of Durban, South Africa, 20 m.

Geminofilum distichum (Eliason, 1962), comb. n.

Type locality: Skagerrak, North East Atlantic, 460 m.

Geminofilum fauchaldi ( Hartmann-Schröder, 1979), comb. n.

Type locality: Pt. Hedland, Western Australia, shallow depth.

Geminofilum garciaalvarezi (Moreira, Cacabelos & Troncoso, 2004), comb. n.

Type locality: Baiona, NW Spain, 7 m.

Geminofilum halldori (Moreira & Parapar, 2012), comb. n.

Type locality: Western Iceland, 1162 m.

Geminofilum heteropapillatum ( Hartmann-Schröder, 1987), comb. n.

Type locality: Geelong, Victoria, Australia, shallow depth (coralline algae).

Geminofilum multipapillatum ( Hartmann-Schröder, 1974), comb. n.

Type locality: Mtwara, Tanzania, shallow depth (in coral reef).

Geminofilum oculatum (Fauchald, 1974), comb. n.

Type locality: Antarctic Peninsula, 412 m.

Geminofilum paracapense ( Hartmann-Schröder, 1974), comb. n.

Type locality: Diaz Point, Namibia, SW Africa, unknown depth.

Geminofilum pycnos (Fauchald, 1974), comb. n.

Type locality: Antarctic Peninsula, 650 m.

Geminofilum sexantennellum (Kudenov, 1993), comb. n.

Type locality: Southern California, ca. 150 m.

Geminofilum solis (Reuscher & Fiege, 2015), comb. n.

Challenger Plateau, Tasman Sea, 1523-1526 m.

Geminofilum spissum (Benham, 1921), comb. n.

Type locality: Macquarie Island, Southern Ocean, unknown depth.

Geminofilum translucidum (Borowski, 1994), comb. n.

Type locality: Peru Basin, 4162 m.

Etymology.

The name of this genus, Geminofilum , refers to the particular organization of macrotubercles in members of this genus in double ( Geminus in Latin, gender: masculine) rows (filum, in Latin, gender: neuter).