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!!!
>>>>------------------------------------------------------------------------
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--
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