THE GENUS STREPTOSYLLIS WEBSTER & BENEDICT, 1884 (POLYCHAETA: SYLLIDAE) FROM THE CANARY ISLANDS, WITH DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES
1Brito, M. del C.; 1Núñez, J. & 2San Martín, G.
1 Departamento de Biología Animal (Zoología), Facultad de Biología, Universidad de La Laguna, 38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
2 Departamento de Biologia, Unidad de Zoologia, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, 28049, Madrid, Espana.
In order to study meiobenthic communities associated with beds of the seagrass Cymodocea nodosa, 8 surveys were carried out in December 1993 and August 1995 off the islands of Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Palma and El Hierro. Sediment samples were taken by scuba-diving, at depths of 5-24 m, with a 16 cm2 PVC corer. A sediment column of 30 cm was withdrawn, and meiofauna was identified in each of the depth fractions 0-5, 6-10, 11-20 and 21-30 cm. Polychaetes were one of the dominant groups, especially the genera Streptosyllis, which provided a total of 850 specimens and 4 different species: Streptosyllis bidentata Southern 1914, S. templadoi San Martín 1984, S. websteri Southern 1914, and the new species Streptosyllis sp. n. The latter is characterised by compound chaeta with falcate teeth and a particular distribution of the enlarged aciculae. S. templadoi was re-described (the original description relied on incomplete specimens from the Mediterranean), while differences between the other 3 species were established. Lastly, revision of the type material of S. pettiboneae Perkins 1981 showed that this is possibly synonymous with S. websteri.