''Eunoe leiotentaculata'' is a scale worm known from southern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and the

South Pacific Ocean South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

at depths of 500–1200 m.

Species recognition

Within the geographic range of ''Eunoe leiotentaculata'', at least 100 other species of

Polynoidae Polynoidae is a family (biology), family of marine Polychaete worms known as "scale worms" due to the scale-like elytron (Annelida), elytra on the dorsal surface. Almost 900 species are currently recognised belonging to 9 subfamilies and 167 gen ...

also occur, but only about 3 other species share these features: 41-55 segments, a pair of distinct “peaks” on the

prostomium The prostomium (From Ancient Greek, meaning "before the mouth"; : prostomia; sometimes also called the "acron") is the Cephalization, cephalized first body segment in an annelid worm's body at the anterior end. It is in front of (but does not in ...

, 15 pairs of

elytra An elytron (; ; : elytra, ) is a modified, hardened forewing of beetles (Coleoptera), though a few of the true bugs (Hemiptera) such as the family Schizopteridae are extremely similar; in true bugs, the forewings are called hemelytra (sometime ...

which have smooth margins lacking papillae, and all the ventral

chaeta A chaeta or cheta (; ) is a chitinous bristle or seta found on annelid worms, although the term is also frequently used to describe similar structures in other invertebrates such as arthropods. Polychaete annelids (''polychaeta'' literally me ...

e taper to a simple point. The taxonomic description below, and original sources, will be required to distinguish ''Eunoe leiotentaculata'' from the most similar species.

Distribution

This species was originally collected in 1976 on a Russian voyage through the

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, who in 1642 wa ...

and is now known to occur at depths of 500–1300 m around the coast of southern Australia and New Zealand.

Description

''Eunoe leiotentaculata'' is a short-bodied worm with 45–55 segments and 15 pairs of

, which are coloured with a purple gradient and cover the dorsum. The

bears a pair of "peaks" on the anterior margin and the lateral antennae are inserted ventrally (beneath) to it.

Notochaetae A chaeta or cheta (; ) is a chitinous bristle or seta found on annelid worms, although the term is also frequently used to describe similar structures in other invertebrates such as arthropods. Polychaete annelids (''polychaeta'' literally mean ...

are about as thick as the

neurochaetae A chaeta or cheta (; ) is a chitinous bristle or seta found on annelid worms, although the term is also frequently used to describe similar structures in other invertebrates such as arthropods. Polychaete annelids (''polychaeta'' literally mean ...

, and have ornamentation of teeth or spines in transverse rows.

Taxonomic context and confidence

There are about 168 genera in the family

but many have not been validated by recent studies using DNA sequence data. The genus ''

Eunoe Eunoe ( ; ) is a feature of Dante's ''Divine Comedy'' created by Dante as the fifth river of the dead (taking into consideration that Cocytus was described as a lake rather than a river). In the ''Purgatorio'', the second ''cantica'' of Dante's p ...

'' contains 49 accepted species, which occur throughout the global oceans. Morphological features can distinguish ''Eunoe leiotentaculata'' from the other members of the genus but there is no review of all species and few have DNA sequence data. Sampling of the oceans is very sparse, especially at the depths where ''Eunoe'' species typically occur.

References

External links

''Eunoe leiotentaculata'' at Atlas of Living AustraliaGenBank sequences for ''Eunoe leiotentaculata''literature on ''Eunoe leiotentaculata''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2419352 Phyllodocida