Protodrilus (Protodrilidae, Annelida) from the southern and southeastern Brazilian coasts

Abstract

Protodrilus corderoi, Protodrilus ovarium n. sp. and Protodrilus pythonius n. sp. are reported from beaches in southern and southeastern Brazil and described combining live observations with light and electron scanning microscopy studies. Protodrilus corderoi is redescribed from new collections at the type locality, and a neotype for the species is assigned since the original type material no longer exists. New information on reproductive organs, segmental adhesive glands and unpigmented ciliary receptors as well as morphometrics is provided. Protodrilus ovarium n. sp. and P. pythonius n. sp. are formally described. Protodrilus ovarium n. sp. is diagnosed by the presence of separated lateral organs on segments 7-12, three spermioducts of segments 10-12 and salivary glands in segments 1-9. Protodrilus pythonius n. sp. is defined by the presence of separated lateral organs on segments 7-16, long pygidial lobes and body tapering toward the pygidium. The distribution of the different species in more or less spacious habitats seems to be correlated with their gross morphology. Protodrilus pythonius n. sp., with relatively long and wide body and long palps with ciliary bands, was collected in very coarse sandy sediments at a reflective sheltered beach. Conversely, P. corderoi and P. ovarium n. sp., both possessing more slender bodies with shorter, less ciliated palps, occurred in medium-coarse, well-sorted sediments in the more energetic swash zone of exposed intermediate-reflective beaches. The finding of P. pythonius and P. corderoi in nearby beaches corroborates other studies showing a higher morphological variability among species in different habitats within the same geographical area than among species in the same habitat in different geographical areas.

Phylogeny and biogeography of the scaleless scale worm Pisione (Sigalionidae, Annelida)

“…() that proper descriptions and identification should take into account both sexual and non‐reproductive characters. This is in agreement with the most recent investigations on interstitial annelids from other groups, including Nerillidae (Worsaae, Martínez, & Núñez, ; Worsaae & Rouse, ), Protodrilidae (Di Domenico, Martínez, da Cunha Lana, & Worsaae, ; Martínez et al., ), Psammodrilidae (Worsaae, Kvindebjerg, & Martínez, ; Worsaae & Sterrer, ), and Saccocirridae (Di Domenico et al., ; Jouin‐Toulmond & Gambi, ), which have shown that while both sexual and non‐reproductive characters are needed for species identification, so is the implementation of various microscopy techniques to distinguish both external and internal variation. Furthermore, given the degree of homoplasy across morphological characters, it suggests that multiple specimens should be investigated and discussed in order to account for intraspecific variation due to varying degrees of maturity in male species.…”

Interstitial annelids from the Caribbean Coast of Colombia

“…Consequently, this report should be considered as a first attempt to assess the diversity of interstitial annelids in the Caribbean coasts of Colombia, demanding further research with additional morphological techniques, such as electron and confocal laser scanning microscopy, combined with methods of DNA taxonomy. These methods have helped solving several species complexes, their geographic distribution, and phylogenetic relationships (Di Domenico, Martínez, Lana, & Worsaae, 2013;Martínez et al, 2013;Worsaae et al, 2015). In order to warrant the re-identification of the reported species, each of our records is supported by a short description of the main light microscopy characters based on direct examination of our specimens.…”

More Knot Worms: Four New Polygordius (Annelida) Species from the Pacific and Caribbean

“…Node support was assessed via the thorough bootstrapping (with 1000 pseudoreplicates). The protodrilid Protodrilus pythonius Di Domenico, Martínez, Lana and Worsaae, 2013 [26] was used as an outgroup, based on recent phylogenetic results [11,15]. Haplotype networks were generated for the COI data obtained for three of the new species using the TCS algorithm [31] in PopArt [32].…”