Cabira Webster 1879

Cabira Webster, 1879

Cabira Webster, 1879:67; Hartman, 1947:510; Pettibone, 1966:177; Britayev & Saphronova, 1981:1319; Wolf, 1984:29.5.

Diagnosis (Following Wolf, 1984): Prostomium small. Palps biarticulate, palpophore large, palpostyle minute. Lateral antennae papilliform; median antennae absent. Peristomium fused to prostomium. Tentacular cirri minute, two pairs. Parapodia poorly-developed, sub-biramous; notopodia with small dorsal cirri and large dorsal hooks, present from anterior chaetiger onwards, with granulose tips; neuropodia with ventral cirri in most chaetigers, neurochaetae long or short capillaries, sometimes bifid. Pygidium bilobed; anal cirri small, or absent. Proboscis eversible, with denticles or papillae.

Remarks: Licher & Westheide (1994) described Cabira as having jaws. However, the only pilargid genus possessing jaws is Talehsapia (Salazar-Vallejo et al., 2001); Cabira has only denticles on its proboscis. Britayev & Saphronova (1981) revised Cabira; and they transferred Loandalia capensis Day (1963), into their new genus Paracabira. The body of L. capensis is very simplified, since it lacks several diagnostic features such as lateral antennae, notopodial cirri, and its proboscis has papillae instead of denticles. Although the relative number of antennae is not diagnostic, the other differences might be relevant to separate different genera. However, the type material of C. capensis has not been studied since the original description; thus, these diagnostic features deserve confirmation. Pettibone (1966) disregarded these differences and included L. capensis in Cabira. We, just like Wolf (1984), follow her approach with hesitation, pending the revision of the type material for P. c a p e n s i s. The species can be identified with the key below.