Paraleonnates Khlebovich & Wu, 1962

Conde-Vela, Víctor M., 2019, Re-evaluation of the morphology of the monotypic genera Lycastonereis Rao, 1981 and Ganganereis Misra, 1999 (Annelida, Phyllodocida, Nereididae), Zootaxa 4567 (3), pp. 450-460 : 455

Paraleonnates Khlebovich & Wu, 1962

Paraleonnates Khlebovich & Wu 1962: 267 , 271; Wu et al. 1985: 75; Khlebovich 1996: 98; Hong et al. 2012: 51 (not Paraleonnates Amoureux, 1985 ).

Periserrula Paik 1977: 152 , 220.

Ganganereis Misra 1999: 156 .

Type species. Paraleonnates uschakovi Khlebovich & Wu, 1962 , by original designation.

Remarks. The homonymy of Paraleonnates Amoureux, 1985 has been discussed previously ( Hong et al. 2012). The diagnostic features of Ganganereis include long anterior cirri, first two chaetigers ‘sub-biramous’ (i.e., with both noto- and neuroaciculae), two notopodial ligules, two neuropodial prechaetal lobes (i.e., bilobed neuroacicular ligules), homogomph, heterogomph and sesquigomph spinigers only throughout body, papillae with ‘thick apical cuticle’ in maxillary ring and papillae in oral ring ( Misra 1999: 156). These features, and especially the almost identical morphology of pharyngeal structures, match the diagnosis of the genus Paraleonnates . It is likely that Misra did not have the publication at hand, which might have been difficult to find. Additional similar traits include the long (+ 100 cm) body with several (+100) chaetigers, anterior margin of prostomium cleft, four pairs of anterior cirri (posterodorsal pair very long, passing chaetiger 10), reduction of ligules and lobes in posterior-most chaetigers, and living in muddy substrates. These morphological and ecological similarities suggest Ganganereis sootai be transferred to the genus Paraleonnates , and therefore Ganganereis is regarded as a junior synonym of Paraleonnates , and a new combination for G. sootai is proposed.