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Abstract
During the expeditions ANT XIII/3 (1996) and ANT XV/3 (1998) to the Weddell Sea, a number of polynoid specimens resembling Harmothoe spinosa Kinberg, Citation1856 were collected. Due to contradictory information in the literature regarding the differentiating characters of H. spinosa and other related species, the type material of the former and of 27 nominal, similar species had to be examined in order to allow the correct identification of the specimens from the Weddell Sea. As a result of this study the validity of H. spinosa is confirmed, but this species has not been recorded in the Antarctic or Subantarctic region. Of the 27 similar species only nine are considered valid and redescribed herein, i.e. H. exanthema (Grube, Citation1858), H. fuligineum∗ (Baird, Citation1865), H. fullo∗ (Grube, Citation1878), H. antarctica∗ (McIntosh, Citation1885), H. magellanica∗ (McIntosh, Citation1885), H. crosetensis (McIntosh, Citation1885), H. acuminata∗ Willey, Citation1902, Antarctinoe gen. nov. ferox∗ (Baird, Citation1865), and A. spicoides∗ (Hartmann‐Schröder, Citation1986), with Antarctinoe being a new genus established herein. Species marked by an asterisk were also present in the collection of polynoids from the Weddell Sea. All records and geographical ranges given in the literature for H. spinosa and the other species not confirmed herein remain doubtful.
Acknowledgements
Our thanks go to Wolf Arntz for the invitation to M.C.G. to participate in the ANT‐XIII/3 (EASIZ‐I) and ANT‐XV/3 (EASIZ II) cruises, and to the captain and crew of R/V Polarstern for logistical support. The following persons and institutions kindly sent us type material on loan: Angelika Brandt and Gisela Wegener, Zoologisches Institut und Museum der Universität Hamburg (ZMH); Galina Buzhinskaya, Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Science, St Petersburg (ZISP); Andrew Cabrinovic and Emma Sherlock, British Museum of Natural History, London (BMNH); Danny Eibye‐Jacobsen, Zoological Museum of the University of Copenhagen (ZMUC); Stefan Lundberg, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm (NRS); and Birger Neuhaus, Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin (ZMB). We would also like to thank Kristian Fauchald, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC (USNM), for checking characters and providing a description of the holotype of Eunoe spica; Fred Pleijel for searching for the type material of Harmothoe gourdoni and Hermadion rouchi in the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris (MNHN); and Markus Böggemann for bringing the types from St Petersburg to Frankfurt. Martin Rauschert, Alfred‐Wegener‐Institut (AWI), Berlin, Germany, kindly provided the coloured photographs of living specimens. Our thanks are also due to two anonymous reviewers for their comments on the manuscript.
