Exogoninae Langerhans, 1879
Anguillosyllis Day, 1963
Anguillosyllis palpata (Hartman, 1967)
Voucher. INFLEX: station 2MFB and VINSON WEST: station 5MFB.
Diagnosis. Small species, with distinctly long palps; robust body, dorsoventrally flattened, widest in middle tapering both anteriorly and posteriorly; 1.3-2.3mm long, 0.3-0.4mm wide; with 11 chaetigers; integument smooth. Proboscis not everted.
Prostomium slightly wider than long, with three short, smooth antennae of subequal length; eyes absent. Long, narrow palps fused for at least half their length. First segment with one pair of smooth, short digiform tentacular cirri.
Parapodia very long, cylindrical, uniramous. Dorsal cirri extremely long, thin and coiled, appear smooth, but very long weak articles detected under high magnification; present on all parapodia. Ventral cirri digitiform, inserted near distal end of parapodia.
Chaetigers with numerous unidentate, compound chaetae with differing lengths of blades decreasing inferiorly, shape of blades changes from pseudospinigers with wide, shallow serrations to shorter knife-like falcigers with distinct serration of margin within each bundle. Pygidium preceded by 2 pre-anal, achaetous rings, pygidium short bulbous, no cirri observed (likely broken off).
Remarks. This species corresponds well with the descriptions of Anguillosyllis palpata (see Hartman, 1967; Aguado and San Martín, 2008; Bögemann, 2009 for details) described from Southern Ocean, Drake Passage, off Cape Horn, Angola, Cape and Guinea Basins and found in bathyal and abyssal depths. Bögemann (2009) commented on great similarity of this species with South African Anguillosyllis capensis Day 1963, suggesting these may be conspecifics. Molecular evidence (Böggemann, 2009) suggests that abyssal specimens of A. capensis from SE Atlantic basins represent in fact three different species.
