Eunice microprion Marenzeller 1879

Eunice microprion Marenzeller, 1879

Eunice microprion Marenzeller, 1879: 135.— Fauchald 1992: 219.

Remarks. This species was originally described from Japan. The only record of this species from Australia is by Monro (1924). In this paper he considered E. grubei Gravier, 1900, described from the Red Sea, a junior synonym of E. microprion. Both species were reviewed and considered valid by Fauchald (1992). The type of E. grubei is incomplete; E. microprion was not represented by the types, but by other, complete specimens identified by Marenzeller from near the type locality (Fauchald 1992). The size of the specimens of the two species is similar. The two species resemble each other in that both have dark aciculae and subacicular hooks, branchiae present before chaetiger 10, and articulated antennae, palps and peristomial cirri. The notopodial cirri are articulated in anterior chaetigers in E. grubei and throughout the body in E. microprion. The two species can be separated perhaps most easily by the distribution of the branchiae, which are present from chaetiger 3 in E. grubei and from chaetiger 7–8 in E. microprion and by the shape and distribution of the subacicular hooks. These are single and present from about chaetiger 24 in E. grubei and usually double, sometimes triple, and present from about chaetiger 40 in E. microprion. No examined material could be identified as E. microprion or E. grubei. Thus, we suggest that E. microprion does not occur in Australian waters.