Paraleonnates Khlebovich and Wu, 1962

Hong, Jae-Sang, Choi, Byung-Mee, Kubo, Aki & Sato, Masanori, 2012, Redescription of the giant mud worm Paraleonnates uschakovi Khlebovich and Wu, 1962 (Polychaeta: Nereididae) with special reference to the synonymy of Periserrula leucophryna Paik, 1977 and the difference from Paraleonnates bolus, Zootaxa 3490, pp. 49-62 : 51

Genus Paraleonnates Khlebovich and Wu, 1962

Paraleonnates Khlebovich and Wu, 1962: 267 , 271; Wu et al., 1985: 75; Khlebovich, 1996: 98.

Periserrula Paik, 1977: 152 , 220.

Not Paraleonnates : Paraleonnates Amoureux, 1985: 96 . hom. nov.

Amended diagnosis. Prostomium with deep cleft on anterior edge, one pair of antennae, one pair of palps, and two pairs of eyes. Eversible proboscis with transverse rows of paragnaths or partly sclerotized papillae on both dorsal and ventral surfaces of maxillary ring, and with sharply-pointed soft papillae on both dorsal and ventral surfaces of oral ring. Parapodia of first two chaetigers sub-biramous, all following parapodia biramous. Sub-biramous parapodia with both notoacicula and neuroacicula. Notopodia consisting of dorsal cirrus, dorsal ligule, and ventral ligule in biramous parapodia, lacking prechaetal lobe throughout; notopodial dorsal ligule flattened, leaf-like, with small additional lobe developing above dorsal cirrus in posterior parapodia, even in sexually immature stage (atokes). Neuropodia consisting of superior lobe, inferior lobe, postchaetal lobe, ventral ligule, and ventral cirrus throughout; postchaetal lobe digitate with tapering tip in anterior parapodia, becoming round in posterior parapodia. Notochaetae consisting of homogomph or sesquigomph spinigers with long blades; few additional heterogomph spinigers with short, poorly-serrated blades in several anteriormost notopodia. Upper neurochaetae consisting of homogomph or sesquigomph spinigers with long blades and heterogomph spinigers with short, poorly-serrated blades. Lower neurochaetae consisting of heterogomph spinigers with long blades and heterogomph spinigers with short, poorly-serrated blades. Falcigers absent throughout.

Type species: Paraleonnates uschakovi Khlebovich and Wu, 1962 .

Remarks. Leonnates Kinberg, 1865 , Wuinereis Khlebovich, 1996 , Laevispinereis He and Wu, 1989 , and Imajimainereis de León-González and Solís-Weiss, 2000 (see also Wu et al. 1985; Qui and Qian 2000; Bakken and Wilson 2005) are similar to Paraleonnates in terms of the presence of both paragnaths (or partly sclerotized papillae) and soft papillae on proboscis, but they are different in terms of the presence of falcigers and the arrangement of paragnaths and papillae. Kinberginereis Pettibone, 1971 is similar to Paraleonnates in general morphology of prostomium, proboscis and parapodia, including terms of the presence of papillae on oral ring, the presence of notoacicula in the first two sub-biramous parapodia and the absence of falcigers, but it is different in terms of the absence of either paragnath or partly sclerotized papilla on maxillary ring. Nectoneanthes Imajima, 1972 is similar to Paraleonnates in terms of the presence of a lobe above the dorsal cirrus in the atokous posterior notopodia and the absence of falcigers in adults, but it is different in terms of the absence of papilla on the proboscis and the absence of a neuropodial superior lobe ( Imajima 1972; Sato, unpublished data).

The occurrence of heterogomph spinigers with short, poorly-serrated blades in notopodia as well as in neuropodia is unique to this genus in Nereididae .

Paraleonnates was first established as monotypic for P. uschakovi . Later, the following two more species have been included in this genus; Leonnates bolus Hutchings and Reid, 1991 was transferred here by Qui and Qian (2000); Nereis tenuipalpa Pflugfelder, 1933 , which had been moved to Ceratonereis (Ceratonereis) by Hartmann- Schröder (1985), was transferred here by Glasby et al. (2009).

Paraleonnates Amoureux, 1985 was erected independently of Paraleonnates Khlebovich and Wu, 1962 as a monotypic genus for P. guadalupensis Amoureux, 1985 , and thus judged as a junior homonym (see below).