Pleijelius Salazar-Vallejo & Orensanz, 2006

Pleijelius Salazar-Vallejo & Orensanz, 2006 View in CoL

Type species. Pleijelius longae Salazar-Vallejo & Orensanz, 2006 View in CoL .

Diagnosis. Very small bodied. Prostomium with finger-like median antenna positioned mid-dorsum at posterior edge of prostomium at the level of segment I; pair of lateral antennae and palps positioned antero- ventrally. Achaetous segments I-III each with two pairs of dorsal and ventral tentacular cirri, total 6 cirri. Notochaetal fascicle moderately to abundantly developed: simple notochaetae with one or two rows of subdistal serrations. Neurochaetae may include hooked acicula spines; compound falcigerous fascicle may include simple neurochaetae. Pygidium with well-developed pair of dorso-lateral anal cirri and a ventral medial anal cirrus.

Remarks. Pleijelius longae , until now the only species in the genus, has been found on experimental wood panels in the abyss off Massachusetts (Salazar-Villejo & Orensanz, 2006), but these animals appear to be common in wood-fall and whale-fall communities. For example, Pleijelius cf. longae was reported forming a part of the xalophagid bivalve wood-fall community at 1,500 –3,300 m in the SW Atlantic (Saeedi et al., 2019; Shimabukuro et al., 2020). Undescribed species of Pleijelius have been reported from whale-fall communities in the SW Atlantic (Sumida et al., 2016).