Laonice Malmgren, 1867
Laonice sp. 2
Voucher. Inflex: Station 5MFB
Diagnosis. Voucher is the only specimen collected in this study; incomplete, 28 mm long, 2.2 mm wide for 56 chaetigers (voucher is damaged in the region from chaetiger 25-50). Anterior part of body enlarged and flattened; colour in alcohol off white to yellow.
Prostomium narrow, anteriorly rounded; indistinctly fused with peristomium by a thin membrane (peristomial lateral wings not rising above prostomium); one pair of rudimentary red eyes; occipital antenna present, very short, triangular; caruncle long, continuing posteriorly to chaetiger 12.
Branchiae from chaetiger 2, small, cirriform at first increasing in length and thickness in subsequent chaetigers, fused to notopodial postchaetal lamella basally; of similar length to corresponding lamellae, exact number of branchiae impossible to define, since all the specimens incomplete.
Chaetiger 1 with triangular, short notopodial postchaetal lamellae and rounded neuropodial lamellae; notopodial postchaetal lamellae increasingly large up to chaetiger 5 then remaining of similar size, triangular and acutely pointed in notopodia until the end of fragment (where observed, damaged in chaetigers 25-50). Dorsal crests not observed. Neuropodial pouches present from chaetiger 16, well developed.
Notopodial capillaries of 2 types: long, smooth narrowly limbate and more numerous shorter ones, distally coarsely hirsute with smooth tips. Neuropodial neurochaetae also distally densely hirsute; hirstuation less pronounced in the anterior chaetigers. Capillaries always arranged in 2 rows in both noto- and neuropodia. Sabre chaetae, granulated throughout most of its length present from chaetiger 17, 1-2 per fascicle. Neuropodial hooded hooks present from chaetiger 34, 10 per fascicle; hooks bidentate (in lateral view) with main fang surmounted by a smaller apical tooth by a relatively narrow gap; hood robust, anteriorly truncated; shaft stout and finely striated.
Pygidium missing.
Remarks. Distinct hirstuation of capillaries is an uncommon feature in Spionidae and has not been reported in any species of Laonice to our knowledge. The diagnosis above is based on single specimen, therefore inter-specific variety of certain characters cannot be reported. Summary of the characters distinguishing different Laonice species from Falkland Island and wider region can be found in Table 1 and 2. For information on diagnostic characters from other geographic regions and assessment of taxonomic characters see Sikorski (2011).
