Pseudovermilia Bush 1907

Genus Pseudovermilia Bush, 1907

Type-species. Spirobranchus occidentalis McIntosh, 1885

Diagnosis. (from ten Hove & Kupriyanova 2009). Tube white (in one species with transverse brown bands), opaque, with longitudinal keel(s), sub-triangular or triangular in cross-section; generally with regular ornamentation of ribs, pits, or teeth. Double or single brooding scoops may be present. Granular overlay absent. Operculum consisting of bulbous ampulla terminated by chitinous endplate or cap, usually with spine(s). Pseudoperculum absent. Peduncle smooth, cylindrical, without wings, clearly separated from ampulla by constriction; inserted just below and between first and second radiole on one side. Arrangement of radioles pectinate, up to 17 per lobe, inter-radiolar membrane absent. Branchial eyes not known. Stylodes absent. Filiform mouth palps present. Seven thoracic chaetigerous segments. Collar with unpaired medio-ventral lobe and two latero-dorsal lobes continuous with short thoracic membranes, continuing to second thoracic chaetiger. Tonguelets between ventral and lateral collar lobes absent. Collar chaetae limbate. Apomatus chaetae from second or third chaetiger onward. Thoracic uncini saw-shaped, with 9–17 teeth above gouged peg (seemingly bifurcate). Triangular depression absent. Abdominal chaetae flat narrow geniculate, with rounded teeth on edge. Abdominal uncini rasp-shaped with 9–13 teeth in profile view, up to 6 teeth in a row above gouged peg. Short achaetous anterior abdominal zone may be present. Long posterior capillary chaetae present. Posterior glandular pad may be present.

Remarks. The genus Pseudovermilia is most similar to the genus Semivermilia, the differences being the insertion of the peduncle (inserted just below and between first and second radiole in the former versus inserted as second radiole in the latter); the arrangement of the radioles, long pectiniform versus short pectiniform; the structure of thoracic uncini (saw-shaped in the former versus saw- to-rasp-shaped in the latter) and the (mostly) regular ornamentation of the tube in Pseudovermilia, missing in Semivermilia. All these characters show clinal variation and it remains to be seen if ten Hove’s (1975) proposed differentiation holds under DNA scrutiny.