Protocirrineris (Cirratulidae: Polychaeta) from South Africa.

SARACHO BOTTERO, MARÍA ANDREA; RODOLFO ELIAS

Simposio; V Simpósio Latino-Americano de Poliquetas; 2018

Historically, many invertebrate species have erroneously been reported over broad geographical ranges because finer distinctions between species were overlooked. In polychaetes poor species descriptions and illustrations furthered the problem by leading to misidentifications and the application of European names to species found globally. Thus we need to review the classification of many polychaete families worldwide. In particular, the Cirratulidae from the Southern Hemisphere are poorly known, and it is expected that several new species would be described from these regions. Southern Africa benefitted from the great polychaetologist John Day who published a series of scientific contributions to polychaetes from estuaries and coastal areas of the region in the first half of the 20th century. However, the taxonomy of polychaetes has since changed with the development of new diagnostic tools and changes to diagnostic characters in some taxa. For example, the widespread species Cirratulus chrysoderma should be transferred to Protocirrineris, since its tentacular filaments are in rows rather than in groups and it lacks acicular spines. Additionally, the European name ?chrysoderma? must be revisited because it is unlikely that a Mediterranean species could occur naturally in South African waters. Specimens of Protocirrineris chrysoderma that recently been collected or deposited in the Iziko Museum of South Africa represent a new species. Protocirrineris sp. nov., is similar in shape and aspect to P. angelicollatio since the segmental origin of tentacles is the same, but segments with tentacular filaments extend to the10th vs 7th and first branchiae start among segments with tentacular filaments vs the last chaetiger bearing tentacular filaments in Protocirrineris sp. nov. and P. angelicolliatio, respectively. The same comparison could be made with P. purgamentorum, from Mediterranean Sea.