Ampharetinae Malmgren, 1866
Lysippe Malmgren, 1866
Lysippe cf. fragilis (Wollebaeck, 1912)
Voucher. LOLIGO: station L3FA.
Diagnosis. Voucher is a complete specimen (branchial styles missing), body slender 10mm long and 0.6mm wide. Thorax consists of paleae bearing segment and 17 chaetigers, 14 of these uncinigers; abdomen with 8 uncinigers. First three notopodia smaller than on subsequent segments, close together, second and third pair displaced dorsally. Abdominal segments without rudimental notopodia or neuropodial cirri. Pygidium formed of several small lobes.
Prostomium Ampharete-type, trilobed - the middle lobe large square-shaped only slightly wider than lateral lobes, with large blotches composed of small pigmented dots. Lower lip well developed, forming high membrane, only very weakly crenulated on anterior margin, with approximately 5 large folds. Paleae present, arising from cylindrical lobes, pale yellow in colour, very fine, small (can be overlooked), slightly shorter than notochaetae, tapering into thin tip.
Four pairs of branchiae in 3 + 1 arrangement, two groups of branchiae separated by a small median gap; styles of branchiae missing; branchiophores connected laterally giving impression of raised ridge.
Notochaetae few, long, smooth, limbate. Thoracic and abdominal uncini similar, with many small teeth above rostral tooth forming paw pattern in frontal view.
Remarks. Several ampharetid genera with 14 thoracic uncinigers were synonymised with genus Lysippe Malmgren, 1866 by Jirkov (2011). This synonymy included genus Lysippides Hessle, 1917 in which Wollebaeck (1912) placed species Lyssipides fragilis, which he described form Northern Europe. Falkland Island specimens agree well with this Northern European species in many characters - shape of prostomium, presence of pigmentation on prostomium, branchial arrangement, form of paleae and uncini, number of thoracic chaetigers and uncinigers, as well as possessing 8 abdominal uncinigers. The only difference is in the form of pygidium, which has two lateral cirri in L. fragilis, but it is only composed of several short lobes in FI specimen. However only one example of this species was collected from Falkland Islands and it is possible that pygidial cirri are missing. Until further evidence becomes available, we suggest the use of cf. when identifying this species.
