May-June/July-August, 2012 
SCAMIT Newsletter 
Vol.31,No. 1&2 
elongates after larval settlement, forming the point. In eontrast, in Scolelepis the peristome 
elongates and forms the anterior point; Vasily refers to this as a snout. 
Dorsal erests in Prionospio speeies are a good eharaeter, but proper preservation is important. 
Crest vs folds is a problem with this eharaeter. Notopodial postehaetal lamellae ean almost meet 
in the middle, but not eompletely so they are not eonsidered a eomplete fold/erest. 
Chaetae - there are many different kinds and arrangements. There are three groups of ehaetae: In 
the anterior, there are inferior/superior notoehaetae, anterior/posterior notoehaetae, and anterior/ 
posterior neuroehaetae. In the posterior, the anterior row is replaeed by hooks (Radashevsky & 
Fauehald 2000, Brazil eonferenee proeeedings). 
In the polydorines, the modified setiger 5 arrangement of ehaetae and hooks is highly variable for 
the different genera. Companion setae ean be assoeiated with the spines. 
The start position of lateral pouehes ean vary with age. 
Pygidial eirri ean have an equal number of dorsal and ventral lobes. Or, they ean have a single 
mid dorsal dise-like lobe; ineised or with a smooth margin and a pad-like fleshy strueture. 
Many spionids have lateral glands used for mueo-polysaeearide seeretion in tube eonstruetion. 
Spiophanes speeies have speeifie patterns of glands on setigers 5-8, ehanging to slits thereafter 
(Meissner et al 2012). Terms deseribing the different types were eonfiising to Vasily so he has 
devised a new framework with 6 main pattern types. 
Heart bodies are part of the vaseular system at higher levels. 
Vasily studies speeimens under glyeerin (high magnifieation) with a small amount of methylene 
green stain to thin the glyeerin and inerease the eontrast. 
No world-wide key to the genera exists, so Vasily is eurrently working on this projeet. 
Next, Vasily had eomments on speeifie speeies: 
Streblospio gynobranchiata Riee & Levin 1998 - apodus, aehaetous ehaetiger one (see illustration 
in the paper). 
Scolelepis spp - the snout is aetually the peristomium from the larval stage whieh gets enveloped 
by the prostomium as the larvae mature into adults. There are basal sheaths on the palps whieh 
ean be present/absent/redueed/fiised. 
Paraprionospio alata - there is a sheath on the palps and lamellae on the branehiae; the shapes are 
used for speeiation in the Yokoyama Indian paper (Yokoyama & Sukumaran 2012). Tony Phillips 
raised an observation that many SCAMIT members have notieed; there are two morphs of P. 
alata, the shallow water form has foliose lamellae, and the deep water form has thin lamellae. 
Polydora narica Light 1969 - the illustration of the modified ehaetae is preeise and is eonsidered 
to be aeeurate. Vasily has determined that the spine was ineorreetly interpreted (angle of view). 
Spines have a depressed distal end with a lateral flange that ean break and look like a tooth. 
Earlier mis-identified as P. limicola by Olga Hartman, P. narica has blaek bands on its palps. P. 
limicola ean be found in the SCB but is rare {P. aggregata by Blake is the same) and is found in 
harbor fouling eommunities, but never in bottom sediments. 
Publication Date: 9 September 2015 
