Typhloscolex muelleri Busch 1851
Creators: name: KOLBASOVA, G. D.
name: SYOMIN, V. L.
name: SEMPERE-VALVERDE, J.
name: TEIXEIRA, M. A. L.
name: CARVALHO, S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Annelida
Polychaeta
Phyllodocida
Typhloscolecidae
Typhloscolex
Typhloscolex muelleri

description: Typhloscolex cf. muelleri Busch, 1851
(Figs 1, 10C)
Typhloscolex mülleri [alternative spelling] Busch, 1851: 115, Pl. XI, Figs. 1–6 [original description, Adriatic Sea, Triest].– Reibisch 1895, 52–53, Pl. V, Figs. 1–5 [description, Central Atlantic].– Støp-Bowitz 1948: 55 [brief description, South Atlantic].– Friedrich 1950: 311–312, Fig. 1 c [brief description, South Atlantic].– Tebble 1958, p. 166 [distribution, South Atlantic].– Dales 1957: 146, Fig. 55 [description, Pacific], 1959: 485 [distribution, South China Sea and Malacca Strait].
Typhloscolex muelleri Ushakov 1955: 112, Fig. 14 [description, North Pacific], 1972: Pl. XXXII, Figs. 1–5 [description, North-East Pacific].– Day 1967, 208, Fig. 9.1 a–b [brief description, off South Africa, Madagascar].– Fernández-Álamo 2003: 647–657 [distribution, Central Pacific], 2006: 210–215 [distribution, Central Pacific].
Typhloscolex mulleri [alternative spelling]Peter1975:48, Fig.3 [distribution,Indian Ocean,WestAustralian Current].– Fernández-Álamo 1991: 99–101 [distribution, Central Pacific].– Fernández-Álamo & Sanvicente-Añorve 2005: 234–236 [distribution, Central Atlantic].
Sagitella bobretskii Wagner, 1872: 347, Figs 1–2 [original description, Bay of Naples].
Sagitella barbata Uljanin, 1878: 6, Pl. I, Fig. 2 [original description, Mediterranean, Naples and Villefranche-sur-Mer].
Material examined. Four specimens: ZMMU WS25592 (Et), ZMMU WS20977, ZMMU WS25591, ZMMU WS25594 (FA).
Description (based on all our specimens). Body 1.2 mm long, 0.2 mm wide without parapodia, 0.4 mm wide with parapodia and cirri with 15–23 chaetigers of body trunk. Live worms semitransparent, with orange parapodial cirri, preservedspecimens white. Prostomium mushroom-shaped, round in frontal view, 0.9 body diameter; dorsal and ventral prostomial lobes of similar size, with dorsal and ventral marginal belts of long thick cilia (Fig. 10C). Apical palpodium consists of cylindrical base and thin distal part (Fig. 10C). Nuchal lappets rounded, ciliated, attached to base of dorsal prostomial lobe (Fig. 10C). Extended proboscis not observed. Three anterior cirri situated in angle, 1 st (cephalic) and 3 rd (neck) situated one above another, whereas 2 nd (neck) one displaced ventrally. First (cephalic) cirrus cordiform (with anterior cleft or notch) or butterfly-shaped (with anterior notch and posterior cleft), 2 nd and 3 rd (neck) cirri bean-shaped or oval. All following segments (chaetigers) with dorsal and ventral podial cirri (Fig. 10C). Dorsal cirri cordiform-rounded in mid-region, oval in posterior; the largest ones in the middle of the body. Ventral cirri of same shape, usually slightly smaller, than dorsal. Parapodia start from 3 rd chaetiger, small, conical, uniramous, each with two simple recurved capillary chaetae, and one thick aciculum penetrating epidermis. Caudal cirri oval (Fig. 10C).
Distribution. Cosmopolitan. Red Sea (this study).
Remarks. Our T. cf. muelleri specimens do not have reliable morphological differences from T. mullerii specimens from the Atlantic. However, 18S and 28S LSU markers show significant difference; therefore, we use a “cf.” qualifier, as recommended in Sigovini et al. (2016).
description: Published as part of KOLBASOVA, G. D., SYOMIN, V. L., SEMPERE-VALVERDE, J., TEIXEIRA, M. A. L. & CARVALHO, S., 2025, Holopelagic Annelida from the Red Sea off the Central Saudi Arabian coast, pp. 1-41 in Zootaxa 5632 (1) on pages 19-21, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5632.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/15371376