A phylogenetic analysis of the genus Eunice (Eunicidae, polychaete, Annelida)

Abstract

Species of Eunice are distributed worldwide, inhabiting soft and hard marine bottoms. Some of these species play significant roles in coral reef communities and others are commercially important. Eunice is the largest and most poorly defined genus in Eunicidae. It has traditionally been subdivided in taxonomically informal groups based on the colour and dentition of subacicular hooks, and branchial distribution. The monophyly of Eunice and of its informal subgroups is tested here using cladistic analyses of 24 ingroup species based on morphological data. In the phylogenetic hypothesis resulting from the present analyses Eunice and its subgroups are paraphyletic; the genus may be divided in at least two monophyletic groups, Eunice s.s. and Leodice, but several species do not fall inside these two groups. Most of the traditional characters used in the taxonomy of Eunice are homoplasies; however, characters used for the first time in this study, such as certain jaw characters and characters derived from a close examination of chaetal variation along the body, are promising sources of phylogenetic signal. © 2007 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2007, 150, 413–434.

A new species of the Marphysa sanguinea complex from French waters (Bay of Biscay, NE Atlantic) (Annelida, Eunicidae)

“…The family Eunicidae Berthold, 1827 is a very speciose family with nine genera and with more than 400 valid species distributed worldwide (Zanol and Read 2012). The genus Marphysa comprises around 81 nominal species with five valid species only known from European waters (Read and Bellan 2016): Marphysa bellii (Audouin & Milne Edwards, 1833), Marphysa fallax Marion & Bobretzky, 1875, Marphysa kinbergi McIntosh, 1910, Marphysa sanguinea and Marphysa totospinata Lu & Fauchald, 1998.…”

Molecular evidence of intraspecific variability in Lysidice ninetta (Polychaeta: Eunicidae) in the Mediterranean Sea

“…Eunicida represents one of the higher, morphologically most well-described clades of polychaetes (Struck et al 2006, Zanol et al 2007a), but, being an order containing 7 recognised families (Eunicidae is one of them) and > 900 nominal species in 100 genera (Rouse & Pleijel 2006) some uncertainties still persist. Focusing on the taxonomy, phylogeny and ecology of species in the genus Lysidice, data on molecular phylogeny have only recently indicated that this genus is paraphyletic with respect to Marphysa and Nicidion, while Nematonereis is nested within the Lysidice (Zanol et al 2007b).…”

A new species of Leodice from Korean waters (Annelida, Polychaeta, Eunicidae)

“…However, diagnostic features of many Leodice species have been well studied under the names of Eunice species by the previous works (Hartman 1944, Day 1967, Miura 1977, 1986, Fauchald 1992, Carrera-Parra and Salazar-Vallejo 1998, Zanol et al 2000, Steiner et al 2002, Zanol et al 2007, Wu et al 2013b). The new species of the present study can be discriminated from its relatives by the distinguishing morphological features provided by these previous works.…”

“…Among the species assigned to this group, L. duplexa sp. n. is closely related to L. antennata , the type specie of Leodice , in the following morphological features: the antennae and palps are regularly articulated and moniliform; the compound falcigers are bidentate; the peristomial and notopodial cirri are articulated; the branchiae are pectinate and show the bimodal distribution of branchial filaments; the aciculae are yellow (Hartman 1944, Day 1967, Imajima 1967, Miura 1977, 1986, Fauchald 1970, 1992, Zanol et al 2007, Wu et al 2013b). Nonetheless, the new species is distinguishable from L. antennata in two points as follows: the new species has 2–4 aciculae, while L. antennata bears one pair; the subacicular hooks are paired in some chaetigers in the new species, but always single in each chaetiger in L. antennata (Day 1967, Imajima 1967, Miura 1977, Fauchald 1992, Zanol et al 2007, Wu et al 2013b).…”

“…In the present paper, detailed description and illustrations of the new species are provided with a genetic comparison between the new species and other Leodice species in the barcode region of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI). A taxonomic comparison of known Leodice species is also presented, with a revised taxonomic key based on the previous literature (Miura 1977, 1986, Fauchald 1992, Carrera-Parra and Salazar-Vallejo 1998, Zanol et al 2000, Steiner et al 2002, Zanol et al 2007, Wu et al 2013b, Zanol et al 2014, Arias et al 2015). …”