First record of Longosomatidae (Annelida: Polychaeta) from Iceland with a worldwide review of diagnostic characters of the family

Abstract

The family Longosomatidae Hartman, 1944 (Annelida: Polychaeta) is newly reported for Icelandic waters. The diversity, taxonomy and ecology of this poorly-known monogeneric family are reviewed based on material collected during the BIOICE project. Two species of the genus Heterospio are recorded and redescribed: Heterospio longissima Ehlers, 1874 sensu Hartman (1965) and Heterospio reducta Laubier, Picard and Ramos, 1972–73. Several body structures of high taxonomic relevance in the genus are reviewed and discussed.

Keywords:

• Polychaeta
• Longosomatidae
• Heterospio
• Iceland
• BIOICE
• taxonomy

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Solrun Bragadóttir and all the women of the Sandgerdi Marine Centre involved in sorting of specimens from the BIOICE samples, Gudmundur V. Helgason for his assistance during the stays of JP at the Sandgerdi Marine Centre, Gudmundur Gudmundsson (Icelandic Institute of Natural History) for making available to us the material described in this paper, Ada Castro and Catalina Sueiro (Servizos de Apoio á Investigación, University of A Coruña) for assisting in the preparation of specimens and use of the SEM, Noela Sánchez (University of A Coruña) for preparing the maps and Julia García-Carracedo for correcting the English version of the manuscript. Thanks are also due to Danny Eibye-Jacobsen, one anonymous referee and Louise Allcock, Journal of Natural History co-editor, for their helpful comments that greatly improved quality of the manuscript.