Glasby, C.J. and Watson, C. 2001. A new genus and species of Syllidae (Annelida: Polychaeta) commensal with octocorals. The Beagle, Records of the Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences, 17: 43-51.

49978

Publication

Kristian Fauchald's Polychaeta DB

226435

A survey of cnidarian material from Darwin Harbour, northern Australia, in the collection of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, yielded two species of commensal syllid polychaetes: Haplosyllis cf. bisetosa Hartmann-Schroder, 1960, an alcyonacean commensal previously known only from the Red Sea, plus a new species (and genus) of Syllinae, Alcyonosyllis phili. The new genus is characterised by having simple hooked chaetae with a subdistal boss and unarticulated dorsal cirri which are arranged in an alternating pattern of large, dorsally displaced cirri and smaller, lateral ones. Haplosyllis xeniaecola Hartmann-Schroder, 1993, which is also a commensal of alcyonaceans, is transferred to this new genus. Alcyonosyllis phili was found on nephtheid soft corals and gorgonians from the northwestern, northern and eastern coasts of Australia; it also occurs in southern New Guinea. Observations on the number of hosts harbouring A.phili and Haplosyllis cf. bisetosa and the number of worms per host are also provided.

Australia

Systematics, Taxonomy

Polychaeta

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