Description of a new Promastobranchus species (Annelida, Capitellidae) from Chinese coasts, with molecular evidence for intraspecific variation in the number of thoracic chaetigers.

ABSTRACT: Promastobranchus Gallardo, 1968 is a small genus in the polychaete family Capitellidae, and the available records are largely reported from the Indo-West Pacific region. Although Gallardo (1968) and Green (2002) noted that Promastobranchus species had intraspecific variation in the number of thoracic chaetigers when they described the two previously known species, this variation has not been corroborated using molecular evidence. In this study, a new Promastobranchus species, Promastobranchusvariabilissp. nov., is described based on 29 specimens collected from the Beibu Gulf, South China Sea. The new species is mainly characterized by having a tessellated epithelium in the anterior thorax, nine teeth in three rows above the main fang in the abdominal hook

SUBMITTER: Lin JH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10838560 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature