Revision of Halosydna Kinberg, 1856 (Annelida: Polychaeta: Polynoidae) from the Tropical Eastern Pacific and Grand Caribbean with descriptions of new species

Abstract

The genus Halosydna is a member of the family Polynoidae, comprising a group of polychaete annelids commonly known as scale worms. The main results in this study are the redescriptions of 14 species. Four new species are described from the Mexican Pacific. Halosydna leucohyba is newly recorded for the Mexican Caribbean, and H. leius and H. tuberculifer from the Mexican Pacific. The identities of some widely recorded species are clarified, among them H. brevisetosa, H. glabra, H. fuscomarmorata and H. parva. Finally, H. nebulosa and H. virgini are re-established as valid species and a dichotomous key for Halosydna specimens from the tropical eastern Pacific, Grand Caribbean, and other worldwide localities is included. http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:AE52ECA9-090C-469B-9503-557B3DBB24BC

Keywords:

• Polynoids
• Gulf of California
• Mexican Pacific
• Mexican Caribbean
• systematics

Acknowledgements

I thank Ardis B. Johnston (MCZ); Eric Lazo-Wasen (YPM); Mark Sidall (AMNH); Elin Sigvaldadottir, Karin Sindemark Kronestedt and Stefan Lundber (SMNH); Birger Neuhaus (ZMB); Angelika Brandt, Kathrin Philipps-Bassau, Petra Wagner (ZMH), Emilia Gozalez-Vallejo (ECOSUR) for the loan of type specimens and other material. Special thanks go to Sergio I. Salazar-Vallejo (ECOSUR) for the opportunity to participate in the polychaete project; Guadalupe Nieto (ECOSUR-Tapachula) for the scanning electron micrographs; Nancy Voos (UMML) for arranging loans of type specimens; Leslie Harris (LACM-AHF) and Kristian Fauchald (USNM) for the attention received during my stay at the museums; Luis F. Carrera-Parra (ECOSUR), anonymous reviewers and Kirk Fitzhugh (LACM-AHF) made suggestions and improved the English. Part of the results of this study were supported by Semarnat-Conacyt 2002-C01-0182, other were supported by CONACYT (6169).