Amage sculpta Ehlers, 1908
Ampharetinae Malmgren, 1866
Amage Malmgren, 1866
Amage sculpta Ehlers, 1908
Voucher. Sea Lion: station 22MFA
Diagnosis. Voucher specimen complete, body robust and compact, narrowing posteriorly, 13.5mm long and 3.2mm wide (at the widest part of thorax). Thorax composed of 14 thoracic chaetigers, with 11 thoracic uncinigers; abdomen with 10 uncinigers. Paleae absent. Four pairs of branchiae arranged in segmental fashion (in diagonal vertical line), well separated by a large median gap; branchial styles mostly missing, one still attached in voucher, smooth and cylindrical. Abdominal uncinigers with rudimentary notopodia.
Remarks. Falkland Island specimens agree well with Amage sculpta described from Southern Ocean by Ehlers (1908). Another Amage species with 10 abdominal uncinigers is Amage scutata from deep-Pacific, which however possesses 17 thoracic segments unlike FI specimens and A. sculpta, which have 14. Amage benhami recently described form Southern Ocean differs in having 15 thoracic chaetigers, of which 12 are uncinigers and 15 abdominal uncinigers among the other characters (see Reuscher et al. 2009 for details).
Distribution. Southern Ocean, Falkland Islands.
