Pholoe amandae, Ogawa & Miranda & Rizzo, 2025

Pholoe amandae sp. nov.

( Figures 8 and 9)

Type Material.

Holotype: UERJ — Pol 9657 Brazil: Lopes Mendes Beach, Ilha Grande Bay, RJ ( 23° 10'23.7"S 44° 7'59.86"W); 18 Oct 2022. GoogleMaps

Paratypes ( 5 specimens): UERJ — Pol 9658 Brazil: Lopes Mendes Beach, Ilha Grande Bay, RJ ( 23° 10'23.7"S 44° 7'59.86"W) GoogleMaps ; 18 Oct 2022.

Measurements: All specimens incomplete. Holotype 0.6mm long including pharynx, 0.32mm width excluding chaetae, for 14 segments. Paratypes 0.5–0.7 mm long including pharynx, 0.12–0.32 width excluding chaetae, for 10–20 segments.

Description: Body dorsoventrally flattened. Elytrae covering dorsum completely, on prominent elytrophores on segments 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13; elytral surface with clavate papillae on lateral and posterior margins ( Fig. 8B), and outer submargin; tips of papillae with 3–4 statocysts. First pair of elytra rounded, following subrectangular. Dorsal tubercles nodular, small, on segments without elytra ( Fig. 9A).

Ventral surface with scattered, small, globose papillae. Prostomium oval, fused to tentacular segment. Median antenna inserted in a rounded ceratophore in prostomial anterior region ( Fig. 9A); lateral antennae absent. Two pairs of eyes, anterior pair twice the size of posterior; a small dark spot in the centre of prostomium, placed in midline between the two posterior pairs of eyes ( Fig. 9A).

Peristomium restricted to tentaculophores and mouth. Tentaculophore achaetous, laterally to prostomium; tentacular cirri subequal in size, dorsal cirri slightly larger than ventral, and both longer than the median antenna; surface with some small, globular papillae scattered, constriction on distal end with a tuft of cilia on each constriction and on tips ( Fig. 9A). Palps rough and robust, latero-ventrally to tentaculophores ( Fig. 9A), surface smooth. Facial tubercle with three small, globular papillae, with some statocysts on its tip ( Fig. 9A). Pharynx everted, with 16 marginal papillae, all of equal size, and two pairs of jaws ( Figs 8A; 9A).

Parapodia biramous, notopodia half the size of neuropodia, with a conical acicular lobe and projecting acicula; stylodes present on notopodial and neuropodial surface, with ciliated tips. Notochaetae arranged horizontally, preacicular chaetae longer, smooth, sabrelike ( Fig. 9E); post-acicular chaetae shorter, geniculated, with spines on outer surface ( Fig. 9F). Neuropodium with ventral surface papillose, and projecting aciculum. Neurochaetae more robust than notochaetae, compound. On the second segment two supra-acicular compound falcigers chaetae, with spines on the shaft surface near the articulation, blades very long, resembling a spinigers chaetae ( Figs 8F; 9B); compound falcigers, in the supra- and infra-acicular region, blades smooth, shaft with some spines near the articulation ( Figs 8E; 9C). Remaining segments presenting only compound falcigers; supra-acicular neurochaetae with blades strongly recurved; sub-acicular neurochaetae with blades straighter and with small serration on the inner margin ( Figs 8D; 9D). Ventral cirri on the second segment twice the length of in remaining segments, all ventral cirri narrowing subdistally ( Fig. 8C). Pygidium not observed.

Etymology. The name Pholoe amandae is after Dra. Amanda Cruz Mendes, an arachnologist and friend of the authors (NO and AER).

Geographic and Bathymetric Distribution. Brazil: Ilha Grande Bay , Lopes Mendes Beach, RJ ( 23°10'23.7"S 44°7'59.86"W) at 12–15 meters depth GoogleMaps .

Remarks. The genus Pholoe is relatively small, with 17 species described worldwide, of which only six are reported to occur in the South Atlantic: P. courtneyae , P. inornata , P. minuta (Fabricius) , P. microantennata , P. anoculata , and P. longa (Read & Fauchald, 2024) . Among these, only the first four have been found in Brazil. Pholoe amandae sp. nov. differs from them based on a set of character, including: the absence of lateral antennae (present in P. longa and P. microantennata ), ventral cirri with subdistal constriction, neuropodia with stylodes (absent in P. inornata , P. minuta , and P. anoculata ), presence of eyes (absent in P. anoculata and P. courtneyae ), presence of spinigers in chaetiger 1, elongated falcigers in the first two chaetigers, and a globular facial tubercle with papillae on the posterior margin. Pholoe amandae sp. nov. is similar to P. inornata , but they differ in the shape of the facial tubercle, globular in the former and small and papilliform in the later; in the subdistal constriction of the ventral cirri, and the spinigers chaetae in the first chaetiger that is present in Pholoe amandae sp. nov.