Sternaspis maureri Salazar-Vallejo & Buzhinskaja 2013

Holotype (LACM 0000) complete. Body wall broken and inner organs lost (Fig. 5A). Body brownish, integument papillose throughout body, dark brown (eroded leaving a paler body wall in smaller paratypes; larger ones with darker body wall). Body 7 mm long, 3 mm wide, about 29 segments; left shield plate 2.5 mm long, 2.1 mm wide. Prostomium eroded, small, ovoid, paler than surrounding areas, smaller than mouth (Fig. 5B). Peristomium rounded, abundantly papillose (especially in some paratypes), papillae extended throughout introvert. Mouth rounded, papillose, slightly projected. First three chaetigers with 12–14 bronze, slightly falcate hooks per bundle, each with subdistal dark areas (up to 16–18 in some paratypes). Genital papillae lost (pale, blunt, short lobes in some paratypes, from the intersegmental groove between segments 7 and 8). Pre-shield region with 7 segments, with papillae mostly eroded from segmental ridges, but present in intersegmental furrows or along some areas, homogeneously distributed. Short, about 4–5 capillary chaetae in some segments. Ventro-caudal shield dark orange, with ribs partly eroded, concentric lines poorly developed; suture distinct throughout shield (Fig. 5A, C). Anterior margins rounded (broken in Fig. 5A), anterior depression shallow; anterior keels not exposed, barely developed. Lateral margins rounded, reduced posteriorly. Fan truncate, one-half to two-thirds as wide as anterior margins width, slightly projected beyond posterior posterior shield corners, median notch shallow, barely developed, lateral notches deeper, better developed, fan margin smooth to barely crenulated (paler in some paratypes). Marginal chaetae fascicles damaged; eight or nine lateral ones (10 in one paratype Sta. 72), chaetae ovally arranged, and six posterior ones (paratypes more damaged). Peg chaetae visible, not broken, but detached, and a single long, delicate chaetae. Branchial plate missing (one paratype (Sta. 72) with one plate left but no branchial or interbranchial filaments left; branchial plate ovoid, tapering anteriorly; another paratype from the same station with branchial plates anteriorly converging).

Abyssal sediments off Peru, Eastern Pacific, in 1296–6489 m water depths, and in the Southwestern Pacific in 795–3830 m.