Hello Mike,
I just address South Africa - whereas, if you need it, general polychaete id'ing help might start with Kristian Fauchald's 'pink book' digitised at: http://hdl.handle.net/10088/3435 and include Robin Wilson's (& co) Intkey databases http://researchdata.museum.vic.gov.au/polychaetes/
Getting a bit old now, but "A monograph on the Polychaeta of Southern Africa", (British Museum) by J. H Day, 1967, is definitely your Eldorado.
Day wrote lots of papers before that, and distilled those studies into the monograph.
Unfortunately there don't seem to be any 2nd hand copies on sale at the moment, and seemingly it has not been digitised yet (open to correction on that). University libraries should have it.
And long before Day, there was McIntosh. This one below I know is digitised - try http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/ to find it.
McIntosh, W. C. 1903: Marine Annelids (Polychaeta) of South Africa. Part 1. Marine Investigations in South Africa 3(1): 18-50.
There's a nice historical introduction in that to those workers before McIntosh. And there's a part 2.
Since Day, further taxonomic work has lagged rather. But what a great foundation he laid. The rest of the world should be so lucky.
Geoff
>>> On 30/07/2008 at 12:34 a.m., <mikegravy from gmail.com> wrote:
> I am currently involved in research on Arenicola loveni in South
> Africa. I go sampling often and come across other species which I
> would like to identify but haven't been able to due to a lack of
> literature. Does any one have suggestions as to the best literature/
> books that I can use to try and identify and learn about the worms I
> might find in this area?
