IUBio

[Annelida] eunice gigantea (aphroditois)

dfiege via annelida%40net.bio.net (by Dieter.Fiege from senckenberg.de)
Mon May 19 08:33:28 EST 2008


Dear colleagues,

last summer I received two  large eunicid specimens from Croatia. One 
was complete (141,5 cm) and the other was missing obviously quite a 
number of posterior segments but was still 104 cm long. Both were about 
2 cm in diameter. I identified both as E. roussaei Quatrefages, 1866 and 
came across a paper by  Pruvot & Racovitza (1895) in which they mention 
a specimen of E. roussaei measuring 3.3 m length. It had been discovered 
in Banyuls when a large exterior basin was cleaned. I guess this record 
might be responsible for those 3 m length that are often given as 
maximum length for polychaetes.... E. roussaei  indeed is big game among 
polychaetes.

Cheers, Dieter

Fauchald, Kristian schrieb:

> Juljan and others,  I saw that Joana Zanol already responded to this 
> for me.  Let me expand a bit on the problem.  Early in taxonomy, i.e. 
> about 1760-80, up to about 1825, scientists reported huge specimens of 
> Eunice from a variety of more or less circumtropical locations (old 
> Tehthys sea??)  and gave them a variety of names.  Pierre Fauvel and 
> others, decided that this all represented one widespread species, so 
> all of them were referred by a single name.  The first name safely 
> applied to this set of species was Nereis aphroditois Pallas.  This 
> species was later moved into Eunice.  The type species for the genus 
> Eunice is E. gigantea, but this species name is junior synonym 
> (according to Fauvel and others) of E. aphroditois.  So, that is the 
> reason why the name, for years was considered to be E. aphroditois for 
> all of this mess of huge worms.  Now, Joana Zanol and others, have 
> demonstrated that at least some of the species lumped by Fauvel, are 
> recognizable, separate species, and one of these is Eunice roussaei.  
> I would not be particularly surprised if it does not turn out that 
> there are several distinct species, perhaps molecular systematics may 
> be the best way of distinguishing them, but I would be surprised if it 
> turns out that more than one species is present in any given area.  
> Thus, in the Adriatic, you probably have E. roussaei.
>
>  
>
> Best,  Kristian Fauchald
>
>  
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> *From:* annelida-bounces from oat.bio.indiana.edu 
> [mailto:annelida-bounces from oat.bio.indiana.edu] *On Behalf Of *Julijan 
> Sutlović
> *Sent:* Thursday, May 15, 2008 4:31 AM
> *To:* annelida from magpie.bio.indiana.edu
> *Subject:* [Annelida] eunice gigantea (aphroditois)
>
>  
>
> heloo!!!
>
> http://www.bio.net/bionet/mm/annelida/1999-July/001251.html
> on this link someone named Kristian Fauchald, (please don't be 
> offended cause I've written someone, cause you're title isn't written) 
> has written something about eunices. he has written that eunice 
> gigantea is not a valid name and that it's classified as eunice 
> aphroditois. so i did a small scientific research back in high school 
> about eunice gigantea, i researched their number on certain surface on 
> two kinds of littoral (sea bottom, i don't know how to say this, 
> sorry). and i was wondering about the name aphroditois, i found it 
> only once or twice and i was a bit confused but now I'm totally 
> confused!?!?!? and i also couldn't find enough literature about the 
> eunice gigantea, why doesn't anyone do researches about them? will you 
> please tell me some more about the name aphroditois, and maybe suggest 
> some literature???
>
> thank you in advance, and many greetings from the sunny Croatian coast!!!
>
>  
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>_______________________________________________
>Annelida mailing list
>Post: Annelida from net.bio.net
>Help/archive: http://www.bio.net/biomail/listinfo/annelida
>Resources: http://www.annelida.net
>

-- 
Dr. Dieter Fiege
Curator Marine Invertebrates (Polychaeta)
Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum
Senckenberganlage 25
D-60325 Frankfurt/Main
Germany
ph: +49-(0)69-7542 1265
Fax: +49-(0)69-746238
www.senckenberg.de




More information about the Annelida mailing list

Send comments to us at biosci-help [At] net.bio.net