Redescription of Ophryotrocha puerilis and O. labronica (Annelida, Dorvilleidae)

Abstract

For more than a century, it has been pointed out that most features of the original description of Ophryotrocha puerilis Claparède & Mecznikow, 1869, probably based on a mixed population of two sympatric species, agree better with the subsequently described O. labronica La Greca & Bacci, 1962. Although O. labronica was described as a protandrous hermaphrodite that could self-fertilize, the widely distributed species is mainly gonochoristic. We will designate neotypes, redescribe these two polychaetes and review their reproduction and development to remove any confusion and uncertainty surrounding the identity of these two well-known polychaetes. We will also discuss the growth and replacement of the maxillary apparatus and the morphology and distribution of the rosette glands, providing support for the molecular phylogeny of selected Ophryotrocha species.

Keywords:

• Neotypes
• life history
• maxillae
• rosette glands
• phylogeny

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank those colleagues in Japan and Italy who provided living animals from their regions, Andrew Cabrinovic (BMNH) for the loan of type specimens and Leslie Harris, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, for sharing her photographs. Thanks go to Jenny Perman, University of Göteborg, who has been in charge of the cultures, Rekha Joshi and Lesleyanne Kilkeary for technical assistance, and the Microscopy Unit, Macquarie University for help with SEM. BÅ is grateful for funds from the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Göteborg, and HP thanks the Key Centre for Biodiversity and Bioresources, Macquarie University, for support.

Notes

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark