In New Zealand there are a handful of polychaete worms which we
believe to be quite rare (because we've actively looked for them) though
not yet on any protected list.
_Boccardiella magniovata_ (Read) now has its estuarine type locality, the
only place it was found abundantly, covered over by a river protection
bank. I personally have never collected it anywhere else and only a
couple of other locations where single individuals have been taken are
known. (The eggs are disproportionately large at 500 um for a worm less
than 1300 um wide).
_Spio aequalis_ Ehlers, intertidal and a giant amongst spionids, thus not
easy to overlook, has not been seen for 50 years. Read about it at:
http://biodiversity.uno.edu/~worms/nz/spio-aequalis.html
Incidentally the missing Schauinsland type specimens were refound
recently at Bremen. The worm in the British Museum is Benham's and not
a type.
The freshwater namanereid _Namanereis tiriteae_ (Winterbourn) has
never been refound at its type locality, but has turned up at a couple of
other places.
Another area where polychaetes enter the thoughts of conservationists
relates to their constructions. In New Zealand there has been some
interest in possibly protecting certain inlets with large underwater
_Galeolaria hystrix_ Morch reefs.
--
Geoff Read <gread at actrix.gen.nz>
-- ANNELIDA
Discuss = annelida at net.bio.net = talk to all members
Server = biosci-server at net.bio.net = un/subscribes
Archives = http://www.bio.net/hypermail/annelida/
Resources = http://biodiversity.uno.edu/~worms/annelid.html
--
