The Principle of Priority (ICZN 1999) is applied in resurrecting the generic name
Hermundura Müller, 1858 for pilargid polychaetes (Annelida) formerly referred to as
Loandalia Monro, 1936 and
Parandalia Emerson & Fauchald, 1971. All available specimens of
Hermundura from northern Australia and New Guinea are described based on material held in the collections of Australia’s natural history museums. Our study recognises two species,
H. gladstonensis (Marks & Hocknull, 2006) comb. nov. and a new species,
H. philipi sp. nov., from near Mornington Island in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria. The former species is redescribed, and new information on intraspecific variability is provided, including the presence of hardened, cuticular structures and a muscle band (sphincter) of the anterior alimentary canal. Analysis of these structures has led to a re-evaluation of the so-called ‘jaws’ of the closely related monotypic genus
Talehsapia Fauvel, 1932, and the conclusion that they are homologous with the pharyngeal sphincter of
Hermundura.
Talehsapia therefore is also synonymised with
Hermundura. The genus
Hermundura now contains 17 species including the type species,
Hermundura tricuspis Müller, 1858,
H. philipi sp. nov., and fifteen others, which are all new name combinations, viz.
Hermundura annandalei (Fauvel, 1932),
H. aberrans (Monro, 1936),
H. fauveli (Berkeley & Berkeley, 1941),
H. americana (Hartman, 1947),
H. gracilis (Hartmann-Schröder, 1959),
H. indica (Thomas, 1963),
H. ocularis (Emerson & Fauchald, 1971),
H. maculata (Intes & Le Loeuff, 1975),
H. bennei (Solís-Weiss, 1983),
H. riojai (Salazar-Vallejo, 1986),
H. vivianneae (Salazar-Vallejo & Reyes Barragán, 1986),
H. evelinae (León-González, 1991),
H. salazarvallejoi (León-González, 1991),
H. fredrayorum (Marks & Hocknull, 2006) and
H. gladstonensis (Marks & Hocknull, 2006). The genus
Hermundura appears to be restricted to the tropics and subtropics, both in Australia and globally.