Genus Pholoe Johnston, 1839

Type species. Pholoe inornata Johnston, 1839

Diagnosis (After Pettibone 1992): Body with up to 90 segments. Elytra on segments 2, 4, 5, 7, in alternating segments up to segment 23, then on every segment until the end of the body. Dorsal tubercles present on segments without elytra. Elytra papillated. Without dorsal cirri and gills. Prostomium bilobed and tentaculophores fused with the prostomium. Prominent facial tubercle. Median antenna on the anterior region of the prostomium, inserted into a ceratophore without an auricle. Lateral antennae present or absent. Sometimes with two pairs of eyes, occasionally fused. Tentaculophores without chaetae. Palps robust. Second segment, or buccal segment, bearing the first pair of elytra, having biramous parapodia, and ventral oral cirri. Pharynx with 18 papillae and two pairs of jaws. All parapodia with a conical and acicular notopodial lobe, as well as the neuropodial lobe, the latter of which may have distal papillae. Notochaetae simple, capillary, spiny, and may be geniculate or straight. Neurochaetae compound, with spiny shafts and blades. Ventral cirri on all chaetigers. Pygidium with a pair of anal cirri.

Key to all species of Pholoe

1. Prostomium oval..................................................................................... 2

Prostomium otherwise................................................................................ 12

2(1) Eyes present......................................................................................... 3

Eyes absent......................................................................................... 4

3(2) Lateral antennae present............................................................................... 5

Lateral antennae absent................................................................................ 6

4(2) Lateral antennae present............................................... P. courtneyae Blake, 1995 (Pacific, USA)

Lateral antennae absent............................................. P. anoculata Hartman, 1965 (Atlantic, USA)

5(3) Elytral surface with papillae becoming less numerous towards the posterior body region.................................................................................................. P. longa (O.F. Müller, 1776) (Danish)

Elytral surface with a uniform number of papillae throughout the body........................ P. baltica Örsted, 1843 .

6(3) Neuropodium with globular papillae...................................................................... 7

Neuropodium without globular papillae................................................................... 8

7(6) Elytra not covering the mid-dorsal region................................... P. minuta Fabricius, 1780) (Greenland)

Elytra covering the mid-dorsal region..................................................................... 9

8(6) Neuropodium with stylodes............................................. P. glabra Hartman, 1961 (Pacific, USA)

Neuropodium without stylodes......................................................................... 11

9(7) Elytral margin and surface with few conical papillae, with fine and elongated tips..... P. fauveli Kirkegaard, 1983 (France)

Elytral surface smooth................................................................................ 10

10(9) Elytra surface unpigmented; Papillae on the outer border cylindrical................. P. petersenae Ravara & Cunha, 2016

Elytral with brackish pigment on the elytra Insertion; papillae on the outer margin large and filamentous........................................................................... P. minutissima Hartmann-Schröder, 1980 (Australia)

11(8) Tentacular cirrus without papillae............................................. P. assimilis Örsted, 1845 (Norway)

Tentacular cirrus with papillae................................... P. polymorpha (Hartmann-Schröder, 1962) (Chile)

12(1) Prostomium subtriangular; elytra with nine rows of radial papillae in the latero-posterior region of the dorsal surface, two to five papillae per row................................................ P. chinensis Wu, Zhao & Ding, 1994 (China)

Prostomium triangular; elytra otherwise.................................................................. 12

12(11) Eyes absent............................................................ P. pallida Chambers, 1985 (England)

Eyes present........................................................................................ 13

13(12) Neuropodium with stylodes............................................................................ 14

Neuropodium without stylodes......................................................................... 15

14(13) Lateral antennae absent...................................................... Pholoe amandae sp. nov. (Brazil)

Lateral antennae present.................................... P. microantennata Padovanni & Amaral, 2013 (Brazil)

15(13) Anterior elytra with marginal papillae, becoming submarginal on median and posterior elytra....................................................................................... P. inornata Johnston, 1839 (Northwest Atlantic)

Elytra otherwise.................................................................................... 16)

16(15) All neurochaetae with subterminal spines on the shaft of equal length in all chaetae................................................................................................ P. spinosa Hartmann-Schröder, 1991 (Australia)

Lowermost bundle of neurochaetae with spines on the subterminal region of the shaft longer than those on the upper neurochaetae....................................................... P. toumatuensis Hartmann- Schröder, 1992 .