Lumbrineris dentata

About Lumbrineris dentata

Lumbrineris dentata is retained from the Kauaʻi occurrence compilation in Appendix A, printed page 86, of Bishop Museum Technical Report 29a. The Atlas preserves the reported species name and the source’s historical or 2002 survey context. This is not a 2026 observation, and the record alone does not establish present population size, persistence across the island’s coast or a resolved conservation trend.

The species has a concrete Hawaiian taxonomic foundation. Moore, Garilao and Kerbl’s 2025 catalog records complete holotype ZMH-ANN-P14233 from near Paia, Maui, collected by Hubert Caspers on 2 August 1959 in an algae zone on rock. The paratype lot includes two complete specimens and several fragments. These type records anchor the name, but their Maui collection site is not an additional Kauaʻi locality. The catalog also notes that more individuals survive in the paratype lot than the original description listed.

At the family level, lumbrinerids are compact, many-segmented worms with small parapodial lobes, a simple head and complex internal jaws. They can be superficially confused with other burrowing worms. Reliable species identification depends on the maxillae, mandibles, chaetae, aciculae and changes in parapodial shape along the body. These are family identification principles, not an invented diagnostic description of dentata. Neither another Lumbrineris photograph nor an arbitrary brown worm silhouette establishes this species’ complete appearance.

The primary plate remains unavailable because the reviewed material does not yet support a complete species-specific reconstruction, including its posterior anatomy. The older credited image is kept as a secondary reference. The documented complete types show that this gap could be resolved by obtaining diagnostic whole-specimen photographs or consulting the original illustrated description. Until then, exact body coloration, maximum length, tail appendage number, reproductive stage and local feeding behavior are not supplied from congeners. The historical occurrence remains browsable with its evidence and this image limitation plainly stated.