A taxonomic guide to the fanworms (Sabellidae, Annelida) of Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia, including new species and new records

Abstract

This comprehensive taxonomic work is the result of the study of fan worms (Sabellidae, Annelida) collected over the last 40 years from around the Lizard Island Archipelago, Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Some species described herein are commonly found in Lizard Island waters but had not previously been formally reported in the literature. Most species appear to be not particularly abundant, and few specimens have been collected despite the sampling effort in the area over this time period. After this study, the overall sabellid diversity of the archipelago has been greatly increased (by more than 650%). Before this revision, only four sabellid species had been recorded for Lizard Island, and in this paper we report 31 species, 13 of which belong to nominal species, six are formally described as new species (Euchone danieloi n. sp., Euchone glennoi n. sp., Jasmineira gustavoi n. sp., Megalomma jubata n. sp., Myxicola nana n. sp., and Paradialychone ambigua n. sp.), and the identity of 12 species is still unknown (those referred as cf. or sp.). Two species are newly recorded in Australia and two in Queensland. The invasive species Branchiomma bairdi is reported for the first time at Lizard Island. The genus Paradialychone is reported for Australia for the first time. Standardised descriptions, general photographs of live and/or preserved specimens and distribution data are provided for all species. New species descriptions are accompanied by detailed illustrations and exhaustive morphological information. A dichotomous key for sabellid identification is also included.

Description of Euchone anceps sp. nov. (Annelida: Sabellidae) from the Mediterranean Sea and Northeast Atlantic, with remarks on the difficulty of generic definition

“…pseudolimnicola. A similar ambiguity in generic placement due to the mixed combination of morphological traits was also pointed out by Capa and Murray (2015), who recently described a new taxon from Australian coasts as Dialychone ambigua Capa & Murray, 2015.…”

“…Therefore, the parallel lamellae were never described for any species of Chone or Euchone. Recently, however, Capa and Murray (2015) report the presence of parallel lamellae in the two Euchone species they described, E. danieloi and E. glemnoi. We re-examined all the Euchone material available in our collection, finding that, although these structures are very difficult to check, probably most Euchone have parallel lamellae, and probably the presence of these structures is linked to the presence of a ventral cleft in the collar.…”

“…These structures were never described before for any representative of the "Chonea" group. Recently, however, they were reported for E. danieloi and E. glemnoi (Capa & Murray 2015). Parallel lamellae are connected to the ventral lips, and in E. pseudolimnicola and E. cfr.…”

“…Indeed, some species can confidently be assigned to one of the currently defined genera, while there are other species that share diagnostic features from two or more genera. As an example, some species have been described and easily placed within Dialychone or Paradialychone (Nishi et al 2009;TovarHernández & Dean 2010;Selim et al 2012), whereas for others, it was difficult to determine the taxonomic status due to the presence of several diagnostic features typically attributed to Chone, Dialychone and Paradialychone (Capa & Murray 2015).…”

Combined morphological and molecular data unveils relationships of Pseudobranchiomma (Sabellidae, Annelida) and reveals higher diversity of this intriguing group of fan worms in Australia, including potentially introduced species

“…Pseudobranchiomma emersoni Jones 1962, in Northern Territory ports by Russell and Hewitt (2000). Capa and Murray (2015) also reported two species from the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland.…”