Framed within the long-term agreement between the Department of Marine Ecology of the CEAB and CREOCEAN, the study focuses on the diversity of the genus Magelona (Annelida, Polychaeta) and is an additional contribution to the series of papers produced as a result of the various faunistic surveys carried out in the seas surrounding the Arabian Peninsula (most of them sponsored by TOTAL E&P, HSE Division).
Five Magelona species, M. cornuta, M. crenulifrons, M. obockensis, M. pulchella, and an undescribed species (identified by Louis Amoureux as M. cornuta in 1983 and described herein as M. montera sp. nov.) have been previously reported from the seas surrounding the Arabian Peninsula.
The collaboration with the Amgueddfa Cymru —National Museum of Wales allowed authors to the present a study including further six Magelona species off the coasts of Iran and Qatar, collected between 1998 and 2007. Five species are newly recorded for the region: Magelona cf. agoensis, Magelona cf. cincta, M. conversa, Magelona cf. falcifera and M. symmetrica, and one species (M. sinbadi sp. nov.) is deemed new to science.
The paper includes a key for the 15 species of Magelona with verified reports currently known from the western Indian Ocean region.
Additionally, Magelona pacifica originally described from Panama is discussed and re-described due to its similarity to M. montera sp. nov.
A ‘buccal organ/tube’ in addition to an everted proboscis was observed in one specimen (Magelona cf. agoensis) and ithe paper also describes and discusses on this organ, in relation to previous morphological studies.
The study has been recently published in Zootaxa, and can be download from the web site of the journal:
Mortimer, K., Cassà, S., Martin, D. & Gil, J. (2012) New records and new species of Magelonidae (Polychaeta) from the Arabian Peninsula, with a re–description of Magelona pacifica and a discussion on the magelonid buccal region. Zootaxa, 3331, 1–43.
An authors’ version (pre-print ) is also available as Open Access at Digital.CSIC, the institutional repository of the CSIC.
