Five colour morphs and three new species of Gyptis (Hesionidae, Annelida) under a jetty in Edithburgh, South Australia

• Published in: Zoologica scripta Vol. 38; no. 1; pp. 89 - 99
• Main Authors: Pleijel, Fredrik, Rouse, Greg, Nygren, Arne
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.01.2009
• Subjects: Annelida; Biological Sciences; Biologiska vetenskaper; Gyptis; Hesionidae; Marine; Australia, South Australia; ISW, Australia, South Australia
• ISSN: 0300-3256; 1463-6409; 1463-6409
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1463-6409.2008.00356.x

We report five different colour morphs of the hesionid polychaete genus Gyptis co‐occurring in a small area in shallow water under Edithburgh jetty, South Australia. The five morphs cannot be separated using standard morphological features, but phylogenetic analyses of sequence data (COI and ITS1) unequivocally show that three species are present, introduced as Gyptis simpsonorum, new species, G. paucilineata, new species and G. polymorpha, new species. Gyptis simpsonorum has a speckled pigmentation pattern and G. paucilineata a few transverse lines on specific segments. Gyptis polymorpha is polymorphic with three different, distinct pigmentation patterns, either as dense transverse lines, as a thin longitudinal, mid‐dorsal line, or as an uniformly dark dorsum. The speckled pigmentation likely represents the plesiomorphic condition, and G. propinqua is the closest known relative to these new species.