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.
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.