Abyssal fauna of polymetallic nodule exploration areas, eastern Clarion-Clipperton Zone, central Pacific Ocean: Amphinomidae and Euphrosinidae (Annelida, Amphinomida)

Abstract

This is a contribution in a series of taxonomic publications on benthic fauna of polymetallic nodule fields in the eastern abyssal Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ). The material was collected during environmental surveys targeting exploration contract areas ‘UK-1’, ‘OMS’ and ‘NORI-D’, as well as an Area of Particular Environmental Interest, ‘APEI-6’. The annelid families Amphinomidae and Euphrosinidae are investigated here. Taxonomic data are presented for six species from 41 CCZ-collected specimens as identified by a combination of morphological and genetic approaches; of the six species, three are here described as new, one species is likely to be new but in too poor condition to be formalised and the two others likely belong to known species. Description of three new species Euphrosinella georgievae sp. nov., Euphrosinopsis ahearni sp. nov., and Euphrosinopsis halli sp. nov. increases the number of formally described new annelid species from the targeted areas to 21 and CCZ-wide to 52. Molecular data suggest that four of the species reported here are known from CCZ only, but within CCZ they have a wide distribution. In contrast, the species identified as Bathychloeia cf. sibogae Horst, 1910 was found to have a wide distribution within the Pacific based on both morphological and molecular data, using comparative material from the abyssal South Pacific. Bathychloeia cf. balloniformis Böggemann, 2009 was found to be restricted to APEI-6 based on DNA data available from CCZ specimens only, but morphological data from other locations suggest potentially a wide abyssal distribution. The genus Euphrosinopsis was previously known only from Antarctic waters, and Euphrosinella georgievae sp. nov. was recovered as a sister taxon to the Antarctic specimens of Euphrosinella cf. cirratoformis in our molecular phylogenetic analysis, strengthening the hypothesised link between the deep-sea and Antarctic benthic fauna.