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Abstract
Three species of scale‐worms inhabiting chaetopterid tubes have been found during routine studies of benthic communities. Anotochaetonoe michelbhaudi gen. and sp. nov. occurred in the East Atlantic off Congo in association with Spiochaetopterus sp. and Phyllochaetopterus sp. It has a relatively short body (fewer than 50 segments); elytra in posterior part of the body arranged on chaetigers 23, 26, 29, 32, 34, 37, 40, 43, 46, present to posterior end; achaetous notopodia; neuropodia long, with longer subtriangular prechaetal lobes and shorter postchaetal lobes rounded distally; upper neurochaetae unidentate and lower bidentate; globular ciliated papillae present between ventral cirri and ventral basis of neuropodia. Lepidasthenia brunnea occurred in the Mediterranean Sea off the French coast both free‐living and in association with Phyllochaetopterus sp. Ophthalmonoe pettiboneae was found in Vietnam (South China Sea) in association with Chaetopterus sp. This is the second finding of the species. The characteristics of the associations between chaetopterid genera and symbiotic polychaetes are discussed.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by a mobility grant of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (ref. no. SAB2003‐0268), by the Federal Program “World Ocean. The studies of World Ocean nature, the dynamic of ecosystems” of the Russian Ministry of Sciences and Technologies and by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant 05‐04‐48350). The study has also been partly financed by a research contract between the CEAB (CSIC) and CREOCEAN (France). We wish to thank I. N. Marin (A. N. Severtzov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russia) who collected the specimens of O. pettiboneae and Dr E. Dutrieux (CREOCEAN, France) who collected one of the specimens of the new genus (from Emeraude, Republic of Congo) and the material from Nice. O. V. Savinkin is the author of the pictures of the living O. pettiboneae inside the host tube and collected additional material on Vietnamese chaetopterids. Drs R. Barnich and D. Fiege (Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, Germany) read a preliminary version of the manuscript and we highly appreciate their thoughtful comments on scale‐worm taxonomy and fruitful discussion of the diagnosis of the new genus. We also wish to thank Dr M. Bhaud (Observatoire Ocèanologique de Banyuls, France), who helped us with the identification of the Mediterranean and Atlantic chaetopterid hosts and whose vast knowledge on this family allowed us to get a clear picture of their taxonomy, biology, and ecology.