, S. affinis Stimpson, 864 from the Northeastern Pacific, S. africana Augener, 98, stat.
, S. affinis Stimpson, 864 in the Northeastern Pacific, S. africana Augener, 98, stat. n. from Western Africa, S. andaCopyright K. Sendall, S.I. SalazarVallejo. This really is an open access write-up distributed below the terms on the Inventive Commons Attribution License three.0 (CCBY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, supplied the original author and source are credited.Kelly Sendall Sergio I. SalazarVallejo ZooKeys 286: four (203)manensis sp. n. in the Andaman Sea, S. costata von Marenzeller, 879 from Japan, S. fossor Stimpson, 853 in the Northwestern Atlantic, S. islandica Malmgren, 867 from Iceland, S. maior Chamberlin, 99 from the Gulf of California, S. princeps Selenka, 885 from New Zealand, S. rietschi Caullery, 944 from get BTZ043 abyssal depths about Indonesia, S. scutata (Ranzani, 87) in the Mediterranean Sea, S. spinosa Sluiter, 882 from Indonesia, and S. thorsoni sp. n. from the Iranian Gulf. Two genera are newly proposed to incorporate the remaining species: Caulleryaspis and Petersenaspis. Caulleryaspis gen. n. is defined by the presence of falcate introvert hooks, seven abdominal segments, and soft shields PubMed ID:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12172973 with sediment particles firmly adhered on them; it involves two species: C. gudmundssoni sp. n. from Iceland and C. laevis (Caullery, 944) comb. n. from Indonesia. Petersenaspis gen. n. is defined by the presence of spatulate introvert hooks, eight abdominal segments, and stiff shields with poorly defined ribs but no concentric line; it contains P. capillata (Nonato, 966) from Brazil and P. palpallatoci sp. n. from the Philippines. Neotypes are proposed for eight species: S. thalassemoides, S. affinis, S. africana, S. costata, S. fossor, S. maior, S. scutata and S. spinosa, to stabilize these speciesgroup names, in addition to a lectotype is designated for S. laevis which is transferred to Caulleryaspis gen. n. The geographic range of most species appears to be a great deal smaller sized than previously indicated, and for some species more material in excellent situation is necessary to clarify their distributions. Keys to genera and to all species are also included. Keywords Widespread species, taxonomy, systematic, Annelida, Echiurida, ventrocaudal shieldintroduction The peculiar, peanutshaped sternaspid polychaetes have been identified since the eighteenth century simply because they are widespread in shallow water sandy bottoms. Following the initial observations, their body shape was regarded as resembling a squash and hence its nonLinnean name as Mentula cucurbitacea marina (Plancus 760), but other folks call them gooseberry worms (Hartman and Reish 950). Otto (82) proposed Sternaspis, the genus name that now consists of most described species, but 1 species had been formally described a handful of years before (Ranzani 87). The name was derived from two Greek words which means breast (stern, m.) and shield (aspis, f.) due to the fact Otto confused the body ends, whereas Ranzani had identified them properly (Eysenhardt 88). The diagnosis by de Blainville (828:5000) repeated Otto’s confusion but corrected it within the legend for figures that were realigned for physique ends, and this was later confirmed by Audouin and MilneEdwards (829:82). Their colourful ventrocaudal shield has made these polychaetes quickly recognized and explains the popular name of `mudowls’; this name is explained because the shield resembles the owl’s significant eyes, whereas the body resembles the bird’s resting body shape. Sternaspidae is actually a monogeneric family members of polychaetes with three nominal speci.