PLATINUM The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles OPEN ACCESS online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Monograph Marine Annelida of India: taxonomy and status evaluation and an updated checklist Sanitha K. Sivadas & Russell Carvalho 14 September 2020 | Vol. 12 | No. 12 | Pages: 16647–16714 DOI: 10.11609/jot.5357.12.12.16647-16714 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies, and Guidelines visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. The journal, the publisher, the host, and the part- Publisher & Host ners are not responsible for the accuracy of the politcal boundaries shown in the maps by the authors. Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 14 September 2020 | 12(12): 16647–16714 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5357.12.12.16647-16714 #5357 | Received 25 August 2019 | Final received 01 August 2020 | Finally accepted 15 August 2020 M o n Marine Annelida of India: taxonomy and status evaluaton and o g r an updated checklist a p Sanitha K. Sivadas 1 & Russell Carvalho 2 h 1 Natonal Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), NIOT Campus, Pallikaranai, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600100, India. 2 Santa Margarita Catholic High School, Science Department, 222062 Antonio Parkway Rancho, Santa Margarita, CA 92688, USA. 1 [email protected], [email protected] (corresponding author), 2 [email protected] Abstract: We present an updated checklist of marine annelids from the Indian subcontnent. Records of annelid species were obtained from published and grey literatures and online databases. Our review of annelid publicatons was restricted to the Indian contnental shelf region. This paper also discusses the taxonomic status of marine annelid species recorded from this region and problems that impede its research. The updated list comprises of 727 species belonging to 334 genera and 72 families. A total of 152 species have their type locality in India including 88 species that are endemic to the region. The current checklist indicates that 25% (183 species) of the records are questonable and require further examinaton. Our results highlight that marine annelid richness of the Indian sub-contnent is underestmated with many of the natve undescribed species being most likely concealed under ‘erroneous’ or ‘cosmopolitan’ records. With a combinaton of factors that include a lack of experts, funding, and failure to update regional literature has resulted in an incomplete state of knowledge for the marine annelid biodiversity from this region. Therefore, there is an urgent need for extensive and intensive sampling to discover new species, conduct detailed re-examinatons of doubtul records and, collaborate within the local and internatonal insttutes and organizatons to improve the regional biodiversity studies. Keywords: Annelids, cosmopolitan, Echiura, Erranta, Fauvel, Sedentaria, Sipuncula. Editor: Cinthya S.G. Santos, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, Brasil. Date of publicaton: 14 September 2020 (online & print) Citaton: Sivadas, S.K. & R. Carvalho (2020). Marine Annelida of India: taxonomy and status evaluaton and an updated checklist. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(12): 16647–16714. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5357.12.12.16647-16714 Copyright: © Sivadas & Carvalho 2020. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: SKS funding: CSIR Research Associate (No.31/26(187)/2010-EMR-I) and Science and Engineering Research Board Fast track young scientst project grant (DST No: SR/FTP/ES-18/2012). Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Author details: Dr. Sanitha K Sivadas works as a Scientst D at the Natonal Centre of Coastal Research, Chennai. Primary research area is centred on marine benthic functonal ecology from intertdal to deep sea habitat. Other research interest includes marine benthic biogeography patern, preparing benthic species inventory and, marine liter and microplastcs. Dr. Russell Carvalho is a Science Teacher at Santa Margarita Catholic high school (SMCHS) and also an Adjunct Professor at Santa Ana College in Southern California, USA. The author is an avid marine biologist and benthic expert. He loves to conduct feld trips and educatonal camps for students and kids of all ages. Author contributon: SKS—conceptualizaton, investgaton and writng - original draf; RC—conceptualizaton and writng - review & editng. Acknowledgements: SKS would like to thank The Director, Natonal Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), Ministry of Earth Sciences, for the facilites. Part of this work was carried out at CSIR-Natonal Insttute of Oceanography (CSIR-NIO), Goa-India. We are deeply indebted to Dr. Bret Gonzalez from Department of Invertebrate Zoology, Smithsonian Insttute, Washington D.C. and Ms. Leslie Harris, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, CA, for their encouragement and support. The authors thank the anonymous reviewer for the constructve comments which greatly improved this manuscript. Special thanks to Drs. Andre S.Y. Mackie (Natonal Museum Wales, Cardif, UK); Christopher J. Glasby (Museum & Art Gallery Northern Territory, Australia); Charlote Watson (Australia); Elena K Kupriyanova (Australian Museum); Geof Read (NIWA, New Zealand), Harry ten Hove (Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, Netherlands); Igor Jirkov (Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia); Karin Meißner (Senckenberg Research Insttute, Germany), Luis F. Carrera-Parra (El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, México); Maria Cristna Gambi (Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Italy); María Ana Tovar-Hernández (Autonomous University of Nuevo León, Mexico); Markus Böggemann (Universität Vechta, Germany); Pat Hutchings(Australian Museum); Rodolfo Elias (INVEMAR, Colombia); Tulio F. Villalobos Guerrero (Kagoshima University, Japan) for clarifying doubts and sharing their publicatons.During SKS tenure at CSIR-NIO, she was supported by CSIR Research Associate (No.31/26(187)/2010-EMR-I) and Science and Engineering Research Board Fast track young scientst project grant (DST No: SR/FTP/ES-18/2012). 16647 J TT Marine Annelida of India Sivadas & Carvalho INTRODUCTION polychaetes, Protodriliformia. Sedentaria contain the polychaete families formerly classifed as Canalipalpata The Phylum Annelida is among the most diverse or Scolecida, the intersttal polychaetes, Parergodrilidae, invertebrate groups that inhabits the marine, freshwater, Diurodrilidae, Dinophilidae, and Nerillidae. Clitellata, brackish, and terrestrial ecosystems. Annelids exhibit Echiura, and Siboglinidae are also grouped with exceptonal morphological and ecological diversity. Sedentaria. Since we have followed the Weigert & Evolving and radiatng globally around the Cambrian Bleidorn (2016) classifcaton, the term “polychaetes” period (490–500 million years ago) this group diversifed refers to the traditonal name used for the bristle worms into 21,000 species (Appeltans et al. 2012; Weigert et al. in this publicaton. 2014). The evoluton of numerous feeding guilds, modes The mega diverse Indian subcontnent contributes of locomoton, and reproductve strategies allow them to approximately 7–8% of the total species recorded to inhabit a wide range of marine habitats, spanning on our planet and shows a high level of endemism. from the intertdal to the deep sea (Carvalho et al. The varied climatc, topographic, oceanographic, and 2013), including extreme environments such as Oxygen hydrodynamic conditons have resulted in a wide range minimum zones (OMZ), cold seeps, and hydrothermal of habitats accountng for this rich biodiversity. Despite vents. Because of their diversity and dominance in being labelled as a biodiversity hotspot region; with the most benthic habitats, they are a signifcant component excepton of birds, mammals, and a few plant groups, of the marine ecosystem, forming an important link in rest of this biodiversity has received litle atenton. the food web and nutrient recycling (Hutchings 1998). Comprehensive reviews of marine biodiversity, the In additon, they are reliable ecological indicators for most recent rate of loss of marine life, along with marine habitat quality because they are abundant, updated taxonomic monographs and checklists are diverse, and contain both sensitve and tolerant species lacking for many marine invertebrates,