Dear colleagues,
During the last several years, our server has been working irregularly.
Sometimes we have even been put in black lists, such that our messages were
returned and several discussion groups cancelled us from any mailing lists.
This is the main reason why I started this alternate e-mailbox. Thus, the
previous 1999 discussion on Capitella was not in my files, nor in my mind. I
have visited our Annelida discussion files to have a better understanding of
the issue. Apologies for repeating the facts.
It is now clear that the 1999 comments by Jim and Geoff remain unattended.
Thus, here we are, 7 yr after, still worried about the same issue. In fact,
Hartman in 1961, and then Wu in 1964, had found several useful morphological
differences to separate Capitella. It is somehow surprising that of the two
papers dealing with the genus, the one by the Grassle´s (1976 Science
192:567-569) has had a more widespread usage, in comparison with the one
made by Warren (J Zool 180:195-209). Anyway, backing Jim´s recommendation, I
have prepared a quick and dirty pdf of the critical pages about Capitella in
his 2000 chapter, which would be available upon request. Hope this is OK for
him.
Luckily enough, there is a couple of enthusiastic young ladies now dealing
with capitellid taxonomy: Katerina in Greece working with Christos, Maria
Elena in Mexico working with Angel. Hope we can have a different panorama in
the near future. Have fun,
Sergio