Eteoninae Bergström, 1914
Eteone Savigny, 1818
Eteone cf. aurantiaca Schmarda, 1861
Voucher. SEA LION: station 44MFB.
Diagnosis. Voucher is a medium sized species in good condition, but posteriormost chaetigers and pygidium missing; 31mm long and about 1mm wide (including parapodia) for 109 segments; colour pale yellow; with small, indistinct reddish patches medially, near the posterior border of prostomium.
Prostomium trapezoid, broadest posteriorly (about twice as broad as the anterior margin), only slightly longer than wide (compared to widest posterior part); anteriorly somewhat truncated; with continuous median dorsal groove; eyes, not observed (possibly small, subcutaneous eyes present); nuchal papillae not observed. Two pairs of prostomial appendages of similar form, short and cirriform: pair of antennae and slightly longer pair of palps.
Proboscis not observed.
Tentacular segments with 2 pairs of cirriform, distally tapering cirri of subequal size, with ventral cirrus slightly longer than dorsal cirrus. Second segment without dorsal cirri; with chaetae; ventral cirri and neuropodia reduced. Subsequent chaetigers with ovoid dorsal cirri with rounded tips; parapodial lobes similar in development, slightly increasing in size towards mid-body in proportion with width, and then slightly decreasing again posteriorly; ventral cirri more elongated than dorsal cirri, with more pronounced, but still rounded tip. Chaetae compound spinigers, with slender unidentate blade, rostrum with a pair of large equal sized teeth. Posteriormost chaetiger and pygidium missing.
Remarks. This specimen is in a good condition, although pygidium is missing and proboscis is not everted (as this is the only example of this species collected, proboscis was not dissected) and those characters are needed to confirm the generic identity (see Wilson, 1988 for details on genera, Eteone, Hypereteone and Mysta). Of those genera only two species are known from the region. Eteone sculpta Ehlers, 1897 and Eteone aurantiaca Schmarda, 1861 (Eteone spathocephala Ehlers, 1897 with type locality Falkland Islands is considered a junior synonym of this species). Based on images provided by Ehlers (1897), the Falkland Island specimens agree well with E. spathocephala (now accepted as E. aurantiaca) in shape of prostomium, although anal cirri are missing and cannot be compared. The anal cirri in specimen of Ehlers (1897) are very long, which suggest that this species should belong to genus Hypereteone Bergström, 1914 (see Wilson, 1988) and so likely does the specimen collected from the Falkland Islands here. Until the complete specimen is available, we assign this species to Eteone cf. aurantiaca.
