A new species of Laonice (Spionidae, Polychaeta, Annelida) from Bellingshausen Sea (West Antarctica)

During the Antarctic summers of 2002-2003 and of 2005-2006, the Spanish BENTART cruises were conducted to the Bellingshausen Sea (Western Antarctica), aiming to study its benthic communities, from depths ranging from 100 to 2,000 m. To achieve it, 30 stations were selected; each one was surveyed in such a way that the infaunal, epifaunal and suprabenthic components of the communities were sufficiently characterized. As a part of the study, some spionid individuals were identified as belonging to a new species of the genus Laonice Malmgren, 1867. The new species belongs to a group within the genus that is characterized by the presence of more than two rows of very numerous capillary chaetae in both noto- and neuropodial fascicles of anterior part of the body. However, it can be readily distinguished from the rest of species within the group by the posterior position in which neuropodial pouches appear (chaetiger 16 or 17) and by the caruncle reaching posteriorly chaetiger 19. In addition, other remarkable features of the new species are the short and triangular occipital tentacle, the rudimentary eyes, the hooded neuropodial hooks first appearing in chaetigers 34-37 and the sabre neurochaetae first occurring in chaetigers 20-27.