Spionidae (Annelida) from Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia: the genera Aonides, Dipolydora, Polydorella, Prionospio, Pseudopolydora, Rhynchospio, and Tripolydora
Author
Radashevsky, Vasily I.
text
Zootaxa
2015
4019
1
635
694
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.4019.1.22
c3c2833b-50f1-4395-b051-13cb324b20a1
1175-5326
235906
88F2DB05-58C4-4726-89D5-99302FABB908
Aonides
Claparède, 1864
Aonides
Claparède, 1864
: 505
;
Pettibone 1963
: 90
;
Foster 1971
: 65
–66;
Blake & Kudenov 1978
: 189
;
Imajima 1989
: 214
;
Blake 1996
: 100
;
Brito
et al
. 2006
: 60
.
Type-species.
Aonides auricularis
Claparède, 1864
[=
Nerine oxycephala
Sars, 1862
], by monotypy.
Remarks.
Aonides
Claparède, 1864
is a small group of spionid polychaetes currently comprising nine species. The oldest and the
type
species of the group,
A. oxycephala
(Sars, 1862)
originally described from
Norway
, has been reported worldwide and considered cosmopolitan. These reports, however, likely comprise a series of similar or sibling species, thus more detailed morphological comparisons and molecular investigations are needed to clarify their taxonomy.
The first
Aonides
from
Australia
were identified by
Blake & Kudenov (1978)
. The authors reported that worms from New South
Wales
and Victoria had at least 20 pairs of branchiae, bidentate hooks in the notopodia from about chaetiger 29 and in the neuropodia from about chaetiger 40.
Hutchings & Turvey (1984)
reported that the only anterior fragment of
Aonides
from South
Australia
had occipital antenna on the prostomium, branchiae on chaetigers 2–18, bidentate hooks in notopodia from chaetiger 22–24 and in neuropodia from chaetiger 22. Both
Blake & Kudenov (1978)
and
Hutchings & Turvey (1984)
concluded that their worms agreed well with the description of
A. oxycephala
by
Ramos (1976)
and identified them as such. However, originally described from
Norway
,
A. oxycephala
may not occur in
Australia
. The conspecificity of the Australian individuals and those from
Norway
should be confirmed in a molecular analysis.