NEW SPECIES OF DENTATISYLLIS AND BRANCHIOSYLLIS (POLYCHAETA: SYLLIDAE: SYLLINAE) FROM VENEZUELA
San Martin, G.1 & Bone, D.2
1Laboratorio de Biologia Marina e Invertebrados, Departamento de Biologia
(Zoologia), Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Canto Blanco, E-28049 Madrid,
Spain.
2Instituto de Tecnologia y Ciencias Marinas. Universidad Simon Bolivar, 1080 Caracas, Venezuela.
A new species of the genus Dentatisyllis Perkins, 1981 and another new species of the genus Branchiosyllis Ehlers, 1887, both from Thalassia testudinum beds from Morrocoy Park, Venezuela, are described. The new species of Dentatisyllis is distinguished from all other species of the genus by the high number of teeth in the trepan (around 30), their curved and hooked shape, and the shape of the blades of compound setae, with both teeth very close to each other and facing the same direction, and large basal spines on the margin of medium size blades of each parapodium. The new species of Branchiosyllis is very similar to B. exilis, a circuntropical common species, but it is provided on each anterior and midbody parapodia of 1-2 compound setae with long, slightly curved blades, with distal tooth somewhat shorter than distal one. This kind of setae is absent on all other species of the genus. This new species of Branchiosyllis was already reported by San Martin (1991) from Cuba as Branchiosyllis sp. This species has been studied under SEM.