Eteoninae Bergström, 1914
Eulalia Savigny, 1822
Eulalia? sp. 1
Voucher. SEA LION: station 3MFC.
Diagnosis. Voucher is small, fragile incomplete specimen, 3.5mm long and 0.3mm wide (including parapodia) for 35 segments; colour in alcohol yellow, with irregular pigmentation on prostomium and body, with dorsal cirri more strongly pigmented, ventral cirri with lighter pigmentation.
Prostomium trapezoid, widest posteriorly, slightly longer than wide; with 5 prostomial appendages of similar form, short and cirriform: medina antenna, inserted anteriorly; pair of antennae and pair of palps; eyes absent; nuchal papilla not observed. Proboscis not observed.
Four pairs of tentacular cirri; cirri of segment 1, dorsal and ventral cirri of segment 2, and dorsal cirri of segment 3 (segment 3 also with ventral cirrus similar to those of subsequent segments); cirri of segment 1 and dorsal cirri of segment 2 similar – approaching bottle-shaped form, with enlarged base and extended tips, of similar length; dorsal cirri of segment 3 longest (reaching to about segment 6), cirriform, tapering; ventral cirri of segment 2 of different form – flattened, broad and oval. Segment 1 not reduced dorsally.
Parapodia uniramous; neuropodial lobes symmetrical. Dorsal cirri rather long, narrow, flattened with slightly expanded rounded end – paddle-shaped; similar throughout the fragment, distinctly pigmented. Ventral cirri shorter than dorsal cirri, oval, tapering.
Chaetae observed from chaetiger 4; only about 7 per fascicle; all compound spinigers with slender blades, tapering into thin tips; rostrum of chaetal shaft of two types – tridentate, with similar large teeth and those with single large tooth and 3 pairs of smaller teeth on each side. Pygidium not observed.
Remarks. The generic placement of this specimen is somewhat problematic as it shows similarities to genus Pterocirrus (mostly due to anterior position of median antenna), but also show similarities to genus Eulalia. This specimen resembles Eulalia microoculata from Northern Europe, which itself shows a combination of characters from both genera. Falkland Island specimen differs in lacking eyes (small eyes are present in E. microoculata), having trapezoid rather than rounded prostomium, bottle-shaped form of some tentacular cirri and while dorsal cirri are also flattened and vey elongated, they do not appear to have paddle-shaped form with expanded tips in E. microoculata.