Figure 15
Stylarioides schmidtii Annenkova-Chlopina, 1924:126–127, 1937:175, Fig. 8.— Uschakov, 1955:309, Figs 114d–e.— Levenstein, 1966:45.
Stylarioides negligens Berkeley & Berkeley, 1950:58–59, Fig. 4, 1952:10–11, Fig. 10.— Pettibone, 1967:14.
Pherusa negligens.— Hobson, 1974:71, Fig. 1c.— Hobson & Banse, 1981:58, Fig. 11g.
Type material. Northwestern Pacific. Syntypes of Stylarioides schmidtii Annenkova-Chlopina, 1924 (ZIRAS 27296), off Mauki (Khlomsk), Sakhalin Island, Tatar Strait, Japan Sea, 100 m, dredged, sand, P.Y. Schmidt, coll. (two anterior and 7 medial fragments; anterior fragments 8 mm long, 2.5 mm wide, cephalic cage 4.0– 4.5 mm long, 10–11 chaetigers). Northeastern Pacific . Holotype of Stylarioides negligens (USNM 32683), Mitlenatch Island, Gulf of Georgia, British Columbia, Canada, 183 m, D. Williamson, coll.
Additional material. Okhotsk Sea. One specimen (ZIRAS 27298), broken in two fragments, with anterior end everted, without posterior end, RV Gagara, Sta. 217 (51°35' N, 154°46' E), 418 m, muddy sand, 10 Jul. 1932 (14+ 11 mm long, 2.5 mm wide, cephalic cage 4 mm long, 20+18 chaetigers). Alaska. One specimen (CAS 26691), damaged, Gulf of Alaska, Sta. 13 (59°21.7' N, 141°04.8' W), 237 m, no further data (anterior fragment, 14 mm long, 2 mm wide, cephalic cage 3 mm long, 24 chaetigers). Several specimens (CAS 151351), damaged, Boca de Quadra fjord, main channel, Dec. 1979, QHMP Survey, coll. (complete specimens 7–9 mm long, 1.3 mm wide, cephalic cage 1.5–2.3 mm long, 23–30 chaetigers; large anterior fragment 14 mm long, 2 mm wide, cephalic cage 3 mm long, 16 chaetigers). Washington. Three specimens (USNM 50071), damaged, Strait of Juan de Fuca (48°14' N, 123°57' W), 153 m, gravelly sand, 12 June 1965, K.D. Hobson coll., id.
Description. Best syntype of S. schmidti (ZIRAS 27296), anterior fragment, most chaetae broken (Fig. 15A); 8 mm long, 2.5 mm wide, cephalic cage 4.5 mm long, 11 chaetigers. Holotype of S. negligens (USNM 32683); anterior fragment, cylindrical (Fig. 15D), tapered posteriorly (posterior fragment thinner); 7.5 mm long, 2 mm wide, cephalic cage 5 mm long, 17 chaetigers. Body papillae thin, long, with fine sediment particles, very long dorsally, shorter ventrally, arranged in 5–6 transverse series per segment (Fig. 15A, B, D).
Anterior end not exposed (observed in a non-type specimen, ZIRAS 27298). Cephalic hood short, margin smooth. Prostomium low lobe, eye pigment faded out. Caruncle pale, triangular, short, medial keel rounded, elevated, lateral ridges converging posteriorly. Palps lost; palp keels elevated, lateral lobes reduced. Dorsal and ventral lips reduced; lateral lips well developed (Fig. 15C). Pharynx globose, exposed, damaged; anterior gut slightly shown by fracture, muscular, cylindrical.
Branchiae lost, scars indicate similar width, apparently in a continuous marginal row, 8 branchial scars. Size relationship with palps or among themselves, unknown. Nephridial lobes in branchial plate not seen.
Cephalic cage chaetae 2–3x longer than body width, arranged in short series. Chaetigers 1–2 shorter, forming cephalic cage; chaetiger 3 longer, transitional, notochaetae less than half as long as those in chaetigers 1–2. Four notochaetae and six neurochaetae per chaetiger in cephalic cage (14 noto- and 8 neurochaetae in syntypes).
Anterior dorsal margin of first chaetiger papillated (some specimens with eroded tunic, with two lateral rounded cushions); anterior chaetigers with long papillae. Chaetal transition from cephalic cage to body chaetae abrupt; lamispines present from chaetiger 4. Gonopodial lobes not seen (in ZIRAS 27298, small rounded whitish lobes in chaetigers 5–6).
Parapodia poorly developed along the body; chaetae emerge from body wall (Fig. 15E). Notopodia dorsolateral, neuropodia ventrolateral; noto- and neuropodial papillae ½–? as long as chaetae. Notochaetae all multiarticulated capillaries, articles short basally, faintly defined, long medially and distally.
Medial notochaetae arranged in a -shaped pattern; all multiarticulated capillaries, articles barely visible basally, long medially and distally (Fig. 15F); about 10 per bundle (12 in syntypes), 1.5x longer than body width. Neuropodia 1–3 with multiarticulated capillaries; lamispines from chaetiger 4; medial and posterior chaetigers with lamispines about twice as long as body width, some twisted (Fig. 15H), appearing pseudocompound. Lamispines arranged in transverse series, 5–7 per bundle. Tips with a recurved single tooth and a hood that runs towards it (Fig. 15G); hood plate often surpassing denticle, giving a bidentate appearance (Fig. 15G, inset).
Posterior end observed in non-type specimen (CAS 151351), tapered into a rounded lobe, pygidium with anus dorsoterminal, anal cirri absent.
Variation. The complete specimens (CAS 151351) were 7–9 mm long, 1.3 mm wide, their cephalic cage were 1.5–2.3 mm long, with 23–30 chaetigers.
Remarks. Lamispina schmidtii (Annenkova-Chlopina, 1924) n. comb. resembles L. falcata (Støp-Bowitz, 1948) n. comb. and L. milligani n. sp. because their body papillae are delicate, filiform and easily eroded leaving bare surfaces. They can be separated by several features: number and size of notochaetae, type and number of lamispines, and number of transverse series of papillae. Thus, L. milligani is separated from the other species by having very short notochaetae, whereas L. schmidtii differs by having 5–7 lamispines per bundle, their tips hooded, and 5–6 transverse series of papillae per segment, whereas in L. falcata there are slightly fewer lamispines (4–5), their tips are entire, not hooded, and more transverse series of papillae (8–10) per segment.
The type materials of L. schmidtii and Stylarioides negligens Berkeley & Berkeley, 1950 are very similar to each other. Both have long, variably eroded body papillae and an hirsute or spinous appearance; in P. schmidti types many chaetae are broken and in the few complete lamispines available, the distal hood is eroded, but because some traces of it remain, the hood is regarded as present; consequently these two species are regarded as synonymous. There are some small differences in interramal papillae, being long, tapered in L. schmidtii syntypes, and shorter, blunt in the type of S. negligens, but because of the state of the material, no further difference was found, and despite their disjunct distributions, they are regarded as belonging to the same species. Better preserved specimens would probably help clarifying any means to separate them, if different. The original description of S. schmidtii and its later illustrations by Annenkova (1937:175, Fig. 80), were overlooked by the Berkeleys.
Distribution. From the Sea of Japan to Alaska and then to Washington, in soft bottoms in 100–418 m depth.