Parahololepidella cf. greeffi ( Augener, 1918 )

Assis, José Eriberto De, de Souza, José Roberto B., de Lima, Manuela M., de Lima, Gislaine V., Cordeiro, Ralf T. S. & Pérez, Carlos D., 2019, Association between deep-water scale-worms (Annelida: Polynoidae) and black corals (Cnidaria: Antipatharia) in the Southwestern Atlantic, Zoologia (e 28714) 36, pp. 1-13 : 5-7

Parahololepidella cf. greeffi ( Augener, 1918)

Hololepidella greeffi Augener, 1918: 148 , pl. 2, figs 22–24, pl. 3, fig. 52, text-fig. 9.

Hololepidella fagei Rullier, 1964: 132 , fig. 4.

Diagnosis. Body dorsoventrally flattened, elongate, with up to 140 segments ( Figs 11–12). Elytra very small, leaving middorsum and parapodia uncovered. Fifty or more pairs of elytra on elytrophores of segments 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 26, 29, 32, alternating on posterior segments. Prostomium bilobed, with distinct cephalic peaks, and two pairs of large eyes. Ceratophores of median antenna in anterior notch, smooth, tapering, longer than palps. Lateral antennae inserted ventrally to median antenna, smooth, tapering ( Fig. 13). Dorsal cirri smooth, with cylindrical long cirrophores ( Fig. 15). Parapodia sub-biramous. Notopodia small, digitiform. Neuropodia with longer rounded prechaetal lobe, with subacicular digitiform acicular lobe. Notopodia with reduced number 0–5 notochaetae, unidentate, with faint serration blade ( Figs 16–17). Neuropodia with 16–17 notochaetae, unidentate, with faint serration ( Fig. 18). Pygidium conical, with two long cirri.

For complete description, see Britayev et al. (2014).

Variability. Our complete specimens varied in number of segments and elytra after chaetiger 23: specimen 1 (33 mm in length, 72 chaetigers, and 44 pairs of elytra), specimen 2 (44 mm in length, 128 chaetigers, and 70 pairs of elytra), specimen 3 (35 mm in length, 68 chaetigers, and 30 pairs of elytra) and specimen 4 (33 mm in length, 65 chaetigers, and 32 pairs of elytra. Our specimens have elytra on posterior most chaetigers.

Material examined. Two complete specimens, four anteri- or, and three posterior (i.e., mid-posterior body end) fragments, found on the branches of T. barbadensis . MOUFPE-CNI 351, 04°44”31’S, 36°26’19”W, 101–108 m depth (1 specimen from T. tanacetum ); MOUFPE-CNI 350, same collection data (2 specimens from T. thamnea ). MOUFPE-CNI 349 (same collection data 1 specimens from T. barbadensis ).

Distribution. Tropical and Equatorial East Atlantic, Cabo Verde and São Tomé Archipelagos; Western Atlantic Brazil (this paper).

Remarks. Parahololepidella greeffi was originally described as Hololepidella greeffi Augener, 1918 , as free-living from shallow waters off São Tomé and Cabo Verde Islands (West Africa). Posteriorly, Pettibone (1969) proposed Parahololepidella to include Hololepidella . The morphological features and cryptic color in preserved specimens from Brazil mostly agree with the currently known descriptions ( Augener 1918, Hartman 1959, Pettibone 1969), including the most recent redescription ( Britayev et al. 2014), but elytra are present till the end of the body.

Ecology. Parahololepidella cf. greeffi was first reported as a symbiont by Britayev et al. (2014), living in association with Tanacetipathes cf. spinescens (Gray, 1857) (= Antipathes spinescens ) ( Opresko 2001). Our results confirm the commensal character of the species, which appears to be a polyxenous black coral symbiont as, in addition to T. cf. spinescens it also lives in association T.tanacetum , T. barbadensis and T. thamnea . Tanacetipathes tanacetum has also been found too harbor Antipathipolyeunoa nuttingi Pettibone, 1991 for in North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea (i.e., Barbados) locations ( Pettibone 1991, Molodtsova and Budaeva 2007). Host black corals