A MONOGRAPH ON THE POLYCHAETA OF SOUTHERN AFRICA PART 2. SEDENTARIA Publication No. 656 A MONOGRAPH ON THE POLYCHAETA OF SOUTHERN AFRICA PART 2. SEDENTARIA BY J. H. DAY, Professor of Zoology, University of Cape To\vn TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY) LONDON: 1967 lisued October, 1967 © Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History) 19G7 Printed by Eyre and Spottiswoodc Limited at Grosvenor Press Portsmouth CONTENTS PART 2 INTRODUCTION NOTES ON USING THE MONOGRAPH When identifying material from a particular area it is first necessary to know what papers contain original records or descriptions of the fauna. These are not easy to recognise in a long list of references such as that at the end of this mono- graph. For this reason a complete chronological list is given below. I. 30. Seidler, H. J., 1923 31. Fauvel, P., 1923a 32. Mcintosh, W. C, 1925 33. Monro, C. C. A., 1930 34. Augener, H., 1931 35. Monro, C. C. A., 1933 36. Day, J. H., 1934 37. Monro, C. C. A., 1936 38. Monro, C. C. A., 1937 39. Treadwell, A. L., 1943 40. Day, J. H., 1951 41. Day, J. H., 1953 42. Tebble, N., 1953 43. Tebble, N., 1953a 44. Day, J. H., 1955 45- Day, J. H., 1957 46. Banse, K., 1957 47. Wilson, D. P., 1958 48. Kirkegaard,J. B., 1959 49. Tebble, N., i960 50. Day, J. H., i960 51. Day, J. H., 1961 52. Uschakov, P. V., 1962 53. Day, J. H., 1962 54. Laubier, L., 1962 55. Day, J. H., 1963 56. Day, J. H., 1963a 57. Bellan, G. and Picard, J., 1965 — Day, J. H., unpublished records In biogeographical studies one must know what species are found in the area covered by the monograph, where and at what depth they occur and what synonyms have been used in earlier works. It is hoped that the species lists appended to each : viii 12I poi.vcHAi.rA or southern afric;a family will sii]iply this informatii)n rapidly and that the "Records" and "Distri- hutidn"' will siqiply the further details that may be required. All the published records of polychaetes from southern Africa, Angola and Madagascar have been extracted from the list of papers given above and other, more recent unpublished records have been added. The complete list of valid species is given familv bv family. Each list is arranged alphabetically for ease of reference with synonyms and incorrect identifications preceded by the word "as". All species names are aimotated by a code showing which workers used that name and the province and depth in wliich the records were made. The code is explained as follow s Anlhoritv for the record Provime whtrt' colhctcil Depth range .Sliown by a number whit !i .\ = .Xngola a = abyssal (over 1000 metres) refers to the numbered O = Cape Province d = deep (100-499 metres) list of references given M= Madagascar e = cstuarine above. N = Natal i = intertidal P = Portuguese East .Africa p = planktonic (Mocambicjue) s — shallow (1-99 metres) \V= Soulh West Africa \d -- very deep (500-999 metres) The use of the code is best shown by an example. Lejiidonotiis semilectus is listed among the Polynoinae on p. 37 (Part i) as follows: Lcpidonolus scmitecttis Stimpson 2C.i (and other code numbers) as Lepidonotus ivahlhergi Kinberg 3C'iNi (and (ithcr code numbers) as Pohnoe trochiscophora Schmarda 4Ci The first record shows that the valid name is Lepidonoliis seiniiectus first used by Stimpson 1856 (code number 2 in the literature list) and his record was made in the Cape Province (code letter C) in the intertidal zone (code i). The same specific name has been used by several other workers as shown by the other code numbers against it. The first synonym is Lepidonotus icahlhergj Kinberg and the code 3CiNi gives the reference to Kinberg's publication in 1858-1910 and the information that these specimens were collected in the intertidal zone in the C^ape Province and Natal. The second synonym is Polynoe trochiscophora Schmarda and the code letters 4Ci show that Schmarda's name was published in 1861 and the specimens came from the intertidal zone of the Cape Province. Other synonyms and records follow and all ol them together show the full range of synonyms which appear in the polychaete literature of southern Africa and that Lepidonotus semitectus is a common intertidal and shallow water species which extends from South West Africa around the Cape of Good Hope to Natal. More detailed information is appended to the description of each species. If there are only three or four locality records, all of them arc given, and if there are many, a summary shows the limits of the geographical and bathymetric range. After careful consideration, it was decided that place names wiiuld not be as helpful as latitude and longitude since the names of many collecting stations would not be found on ordinary maps and, in any case, dredged and plankton records would have to be given in degrees of latitude and longitude. Minutes of latitude and longitude ix(2) •ader )t be [uare :ient. east ' can • the >Jatal I the re is 1 the Ilape form ition Ided :dly. vhile may been Tiists o 27° 28° 29° 30° 31° 32° 33° 34° 35" 24° 25° 26 36° 37" = 20' 21' 22° 23° 14" 15- 16" 17° 18° 19 ^r- 130 12° 13° 14° 15° 16° 17° 18° I 9° 20° 21° 22° 23° 24° 25° 26° 27° 28° 29° 30° 31° 32° 33° 34° 35° 36" 37° INTRODUCTION ix (2) have also been omitted for the sake of brevity and this means that unless the reader refers to the publication from vvhich the record has been extracted, he will not be able to pinpoint the record more accurately than somewhere in the 60 mile square formed by a degree of latitude and longitude. For most purposes this is sufficient. Luckily the whole of southern .\frica is covered by degrees of south latitude and east longitude so that the words "south" and "east" are omitted. Thus the locality can be expressed in four figures and the depth range by a letter. For example the records for Hermonia hystrix described in Part i are shown as Cape (31/15/d) ;? Natal (29/3 1 /s). This means that the species has been recorded in Cape waters in the latitude/longitude square 3rS/i5°E, in the depth range 100-499 metres; there is also a doubtful record from Natal in the latitude/longitude square 29°S/3i °E, in the depth range 1-99 metres. Reference to the map opposite will show that the Cape record is off Lamberts Bay and the doubtful Natal record is close to Durban. Distribution beyond the limits of southern Africa is given in the conventional form and a code letter signifying the depth range has been added when this information is available. It is urged that some indication of depth range should always be added to summaries of distribution since the fauna at different depths may differ markedly. For example tropical species are restricted to intertidal and shallow depths while the very deep and abyssal bottoms may be colonised by cold water species. It may also be noted that the summary of distribution given in this monograph has been deliberately selected from twentieth century reports of well-known taxonomists since earlier works are not always reliable. THE SYSTEMATICS OF THE POLYCHAETA OF SOUTHERN AFRICA CLASSIFICATION The phylum Annelida to which the Polychaeta and several other groups of worms belong, is difficult to classify into classes and orders. Early workers included the Archiannclida, Polychaeta, Myzostomida, Oligochaeta, Hirudinca, Echiura, Sipun- cula and Priapulida. Recent workers including Dales (1963), regard the last three groups as distinct and consider each of the other groups as a separate class of the phylum Annelida. The division of the class Polychaeta into orders has been attempted by Benham (1896) and Dales (1963). They have based their divisions on the structure of the head and the nature of the feeding organs, the regions of the body and the nature oftheparapodia and setae. As shown in Part i the method of feeding and the habitat whether it be planktonic, active crawling on the surface, burrowing in the mud or tubicolous does have an important effect on the structure of the head and body. However there are still many doubts regarding the homologies of the feeding organs and there is still no general agreement as to which families should be included in the various orders which have been erected. For this reason it is better to leave the matter open and agree with Fauvel (1923) and many earlier workers that for practical purposes the arbitrary grouping into Polychaeta Errantia and Polychaeta Sedenlaria should be used. The Polychaeta Errantia includes active carnivores and a few others while the Polychaeta Sedentaria includes the remaining microphagous feeders. There are no mutually exclusive characters which define these two groups and a summation of characters is used in the following key. Key to the Families of Polychaeta Note Some families have such a wide range of characters that they appear twice in the key. In these cases a number in brackets refers to the other couplet in which the family appears. Most of the following characters: Prostomium with sensory appendages. Pharynx armed with jaws or teeth. Parapodia well deseloped and often bear compound setae . (Polych.veta Err.\ntia) Part i Most of the following characters: p. 20 Prostomium seldom with sensory appendages and often fused to the peristome which may bear grooved palps, buccal cirri or a branchial crown.