From Ampharete from yandex.ru Sat Oct 3 06:51:06 2009 From: Ampharete from yandex.ru (Igor Jirkov) Date: Sat Oct 3 14:00:33 2009 Subject: [Annelida] new paper in Ampharetidae taxonomy Message-ID: <91091254570666@webmail6.yandex.ru> Dear colleagues, My new paper now is available free at http://nature.ok.ru/invertebrates/pdf_files/invert5_2%20111_132_Jirkov.pdf In it I made revision of Anobothrus and similar genera (Anobothrella, Sosanides)/ Also it contains synopsis of all species with modified notopodia and a detailed discussion of taxonomical value of ampharetids morphological characters. If somebody has a question on the topics, glad to try to answer Wormly Igor -- Dr. Sc. Igor A. Jirkov Leading Scientific Researcher Department of Hydrobiology Biological faculty Moscow State University Moscow Russia From luisnevescunha from gmail.com Sun Oct 4 23:30:39 2009 From: luisnevescunha from gmail.com (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Lu=EDs_Cunha?=) Date: Mon Oct 5 02:25:25 2009 Subject: [Annelida] Mitochondrial isolation for mt DNA extraction from Earthworms Message-ID: <37fceeac0910042130u7082f8a4t30d0378c14501130@mail.gmail.com> Dear collegues I wonder if anyone ever tried to isolate mitochondrias from earthworms for posterior mtDNA extraction, could anyone sen me a good protocol? I am having a lot of trouble doing that, probably due to soil contamination in the digestive tract, even after depuration and I am getting very low yield of mtDNA. Any help?? I am working with Pontoscolex corethrurus, my model organism :). Best regards -- Luís Cunha (Msc, Phd student) Centro de Investigação em Recursos Naturais, Departamento de Biologia – Universidade dos Açores, Rua da Mãe de Deus, 13A – Apartado 1422, 9501-855 Ponta Delgada Açores, Portugal Tel: (+351) 296 650 102 (ext. 1476) Fax: (+351) 296 650 100 Tlm (+351) 913897557 E-mail: luisnevescunha@gmail.com http://www.pherg.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.bio.net/bionet/mm/annelida/attachments/20091005/ae01f1e1/attachment.html From gambimc from szn.it Tue Oct 6 14:29:41 2009 From: gambimc from szn.it (gambimc@szn.it) Date: Tue Oct 6 23:28:51 2009 Subject: [Annelida] 10th Polychaete Conference, abstract submission and news Message-ID: <20091006212941.t40vpaf8ndsk48wc@webmail.szn.it> Dear annelidians and colleagues, it is a pleasure to inform you that, on the web site www.polychaeta.it, are now available the information for abstract submission for the next 10th International Polychaete Conference (Lecce, Italy, 20-26 June 2010). In the web site you will find other news as well, regarding travel information to reach Lecce, accomodation options, Congress location and themes, and the main deadlines for abstract submission, notification of acceptance, and Conference registration. You will find also the abstract form that you can fill and send to a dedicated email; we remind that the deadline for abtsract submission is the 31st December 2009. So we invite you to visit the site (www.polychaeta.it), and please do not hesitate to contact in case you have further queries and specific needs related to your participation. Please, we also invite to send these information to any other of your colleagues you think may be interested in attending this event. Hoping to see you all in Lecce, we send our best regards also on the behalf of the organizing and scientific Committee of the 10th IPC. Ciao, cheers, Maria Cristina Gambi and Adriana Giangrande ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. From melih.cinar from ege.edu.tr Wed Oct 7 03:05:11 2009 From: melih.cinar from ege.edu.tr (=?iso-8859-9?Q?Melih_Ertan_=C7INAR?=) Date: Wed Oct 7 14:05:55 2009 Subject: [Annelida] publications Message-ID: Dear all Laubier & Ramos's papers and others can be downloaded at http://www.ifremer.fr/docelec/ and Galathea reports can be freely accessed at http://www.zmuc.dk/InverWeb/Galathea/index.html Kind regards from sunny Izmir Melih * * * Melih Ertan ?INAR Ege University Faculty of Fisheries Dept. of Hydrobiology 35100 Bornova, Izmir, Turkey Fax: +902323883685 EGE ?N?VERS?TES? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Bu elektronik posta ve onunla iletilen b?t?n dosyalar sadece g?ndericisi tarafindan almasi amaclanan yetkili gercek ya da t?zel kisinin kullanimi icindir. Eger s?z konusu yetkili alici degilseniz bu elektronik postanin icerigini aciklamaniz, kopyalamaniz, y?nlendirmeniz ve kullanmanizkesinlikle yasaktir ve bu elektronik postayi derhal silmeniz gerekmektedir. EGE ?N?VERS?TES? bu mesajin icerdigi bilgilerin do?rulu?u veya eksiksiz oldugu konusunda herhangi bir garanti vermemektedir. Bu nedenle bu bilgilerin ne sekilde olursa olsun iceriginden, iletilmesinden, alinmasindan ve saklanmasindan sorumlu degildir. Bu mesajdaki g?r?sler yalnizca g?nderen kisiye aittir ve EGE ?N?VERS?TES?'nin g?r?slerini yansitmayabilir ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This e-mail and any attachments may contain confidential and privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail, delete this e-mail and destroy any copies. Any dissemination or use of this information by a person other than the intended recipient is unauthorized and may be illegal. EGE UNIVERSITY makes no warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of any information contained in this message and hereby excludes any liability of any kind for the information contained therein or for the information transmission, reception, storage or use of such in any way whatsoever. The opinions expressed in this message belong to sender alone and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of EGE UNIVERSITY. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.bio.net/bionet/mm/annelida/attachments/20091007/c0e9aaf0/attachment.html From barbara.mikac from cim.irb.hr Tue Oct 20 04:20:53 2009 From: barbara.mikac from cim.irb.hr (Barbara Mikac) Date: Tue Oct 20 14:00:02 2009 Subject: [Annelida] help on determination of Praxillella and Clymenura Message-ID: <1256030453.6990.24.camel@posidonia> Dear colleagues, Can you advice me how can I determine Praxillella species based only on the front part of the animal containing the head (thus it's not possible to count the number of chaetigers). Sometimes I also have only pygidium, but then usually without the front part. In the Adriatic Sea there should be present: P. affinis, P. gracilis, P. praetermissa and P. lophosetosa. P. gracilis should be easy to determin because it should have distinctly elongated palpode on the prostomium. P. affinis should have ocelli and P. praetermissa not. But what about P. lophosetosa? Are the characteristics I mentioned above sufficient to distinguish the species anyway? I also have a problem to determine Clymenura clypeata and C. tricirrata, that could be both potentially found on the stations I am working on. It's quite easy when I have the pygidium, because if it has muscular ring with three cirri originating from it, I know it's C. tricirrata. On the other hand if it only has a muscular ring forming a pygidial plate and an anal cone with a well developed ventral valve (Garwood, 2007) I know it's C. clypeata. Most of my animals unfortunately lack the posterior part/pygidium. Is there some way to distinguish two species based on the front part of the animal? Thank you very much for your help! Barbara ________ Barbara Mikac, M.Sc. Marine Research Centre Rudjer Boskovic Institute G. Paliaga 5 52210 Rovinj Croatia From g.read from niwa.co.nz Tue Oct 20 15:19:01 2009 From: g.read from niwa.co.nz (Geoff Read) Date: Tue Oct 20 15:22:49 2009 Subject: [Annelida] help on determination of Praxillella and Clymenura In-Reply-To: <1256030453.6990.24.camel@posidonia> References: <1256030453.6990.24.camel@posidonia> Message-ID: <4ADED203.8045.00D5.1@niwa.co.nz> Those interested who don't know of Garwood (2007) can get it at: http://www.nmbaqcs.org/scheme-components/invertebrates/literature-and-taxonomic-keys.aspx Barbara, This is not a part of the world I am experienced in but I can make some initial comments. If Garwood's nice indications for id'ing ant or post ends of (British Isles) maldanids don't get you an id then it probably can't be done. Pygidiums can be quite distinctive, and lacking them one can struggle. I don't know much about Praxillella. lophosetosa (a lapsus, actually lophoseta(?), originally apparently Clymene lophoseta Orlandi, 1898), and while WoRMS currently has an entry for that combination, another entry places it as a synonym of P. affinis. I do not know who made the synonymy or whether it is accurate, without doing further investigating, but it may partly originate from Hartman's catalogue (p.454), and she most likely would have got it from somewhere else. Unfortunately, as with all her placements, such source information, which would be hugely useful today, was not included in the catalogue - it may have existed only in her head or on an index card somewhere. http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=130322 Geoff >>> On 20/10/2009 at 10:20 p.m., Barbara Mikac wrote: > Dear colleagues, > > Can you advice me how can I determine Praxillella species based only on > the front part of the animal containing the head (thus it's not possible > to count the number of chaetigers). Sometimes I also have only pygidium, > but then usually without the front part. In the Adriatic Sea there > should be present: P. affinis, P. gracilis, P. praetermissa and P. > lophosetosa. P. gracilis should be easy to determin because it should > have distinctly elongated palpode on the prostomium. P. affinis should > have ocelli and P. praetermissa not. But what about P. lophosetosa? Are > the characteristics I mentioned above sufficient to distinguish the > species anyway? > > I also have a problem to determine Clymenura clypeata and C. tricirrata, > that could be both potentially found on the stations I am working on. > It's quite easy when I have the pygidium, because if it has muscular > ring with three cirri originating from it, I know it's C. tricirrata. On > the other hand if it only has a muscular ring forming a pygidial plate > and an anal cone with a well developed ventral valve (Garwood, 2007) I > know it's C. clypeata. Most of my animals unfortunately lack the > posterior part/pygidium. Is there some way to distinguish two species > based on the front part of the animal? > > Thank you very much for your help! > > Barbara > > ________ > Barbara Mikac, M.Sc. > Marine Research Centre > Rudjer Boskovic Institute > G. Paliaga 5 > 52210 Rovinj > Croatia NIWA is the trading name of the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research Ltd. From g.read from niwa.co.nz Tue Oct 20 17:04:57 2009 From: g.read from niwa.co.nz (Geoff Read) Date: Tue Oct 20 17:07:08 2009 Subject: [Annelida] Wu, Wu & Qian 1987 Message-ID: <4ADEEAD8.8045.00D5.1@niwa.co.nz> Dear all, I have exhausted all the usual options for obtaining this paper below. Does anyone have access to a copy they could scan for me or know of a source? I think the text is in Chinese, and WorldCat suggests in the Roman alphabet the journal title might be: Kao cha yu yan jiu. Wu Q, Wu B, Qian P 1987. Five new species of polychaetous Annelida (Ampharetidae and Terebellidae) from South Oceans. Investigatio Et Studium Naturae Museum Historiae Naturae Shanghaiense 7: 39-54. http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=sourcedetails&id=52224 Taxa (5) Eusamythella multidentata Wu, Wu & Qian, 1987 (original description) Grubianella brevicirrata Wu, Wu & Qian, 1987 (original description) Proclea antarctica Wu, Wu & Qian, 1987 (original description) Streblosoma sinica Wu, Wu & Qian, 1987 (original description) Streblosoma xiangyanghong Wu, Wu & Qian, 1987 (original description) Thanks, Geoff -- Geoff Read http://www.annelida.net/ http://www.niwa.co.nz/about-niwa *************************** NIWA is the trading name of the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research Ltd. From LLovell from lacsd.org Tue Oct 20 17:05:36 2009 From: LLovell from lacsd.org (Lovell, Larry) Date: Tue Oct 20 17:10:28 2009 Subject: [Annelida] help on determination of Praxillella and Clymenura In-Reply-To: Message-ID: -----Original Message----- From: Lovell, Larry Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 2:37 PM To: 'Barbara Mikac'; Polychaete mailing list Subject: RE: [Annelida] help on determination of Praxillella and Clymenura Barbara, Try staining your anterior fragment specimens in an ethanol solution of methyl green. A solution dark enough to still see the animals in the stain should work well, too dark and you will have a hard time retrieving small specimens. Or you can hold a specimen with your forceps and submerge it into the solution and hold there for 5-10 seconds or longer if necessary. Place the specimen in fresh EtOH to destain yielding a pattern that will persist for several hours to several days. The MG stain will eventually fade completely (some specimens/species may take much longer). Maldanid species can have very specific methyl green staining patterns that can be used top ID incomplete specimens. Stain a few of your voucher specimens for which you have a positive identification to establish the staining patterns for your known species and work from there for the fragmented specimens. If there are 10-12 setigers present (sometimes fewer), that can usually be enough to tell pattern differences. There will be thoracic and abdominal patterns. The methyl green is reported/thought to stain mucous secreting glandular areas. As an example, I can send (sent to Barbara) staining patterns of two local southern California species, Praxillella pacifica Berkeley 1929 and Euclymeninae sp A SCAMIT 1987, a provisional species. Credit goes to Kelvin Barwick, OCSD for the images. PDF's of the images did not go through to Annelida (as expected), please request them from me if you would like them. Methyl green staining patterns are useful taxonomic characters in other several other polychaete families: especially the Maldanidae (Green 1987, 1991, 1997), Capitellidae (Green 2002; Warren et al 1994, Blake 2000), Cirratulidae (Blake 1996, 2006; Dean & Blake 2009; Doner & Blake 2009), and Sabellidae (Tovar-Hernandez 2007). Hope this helps. Larry Lawrence L. Lovell Biologist II Ocean Monitoring Research Group County Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles 24501 S. Figueroa St. Carson, CA 90745 (310) 830-2400 X-5613 office (310) 952-1065 fax llovell@lacsd.org -----Original Message----- From: annelida-bounces@oat.bio.indiana.edu [mailto:annelida-bounces@oat.bio.indiana.edu]On Behalf Of Barbara Mikac Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 2:21 AM To: Polychaete mailing list Subject: [Annelida] help on determination of Praxillella and Clymenura Dear colleagues, Can you advice me how can I determine Praxillella species based only on the front part of the animal containing the head (thus it's not possible to count the number of chaetigers). Sometimes I also have only pygidium, but then usually without the front part. In the Adriatic Sea there should be present: P. affinis, P. gracilis, P. praetermissa and P. lophosetosa. P. gracilis should be easy to determin because it should have distinctly elongated palpode on the prostomium. P. affinis should have ocelli and P. praetermissa not. But what about P. lophosetosa? Are the characteristics I mentioned above sufficient to distinguish the species anyway? I also have a problem to determine Clymenura clypeata and C. tricirrata, that could be both potentially found on the stations I am working on. It's quite easy when I have the pygidium, because if it has muscular ring with three cirri originating from it, I know it's C. tricirrata. On the other hand if it only has a muscular ring forming a pygidial plate and an anal cone with a well developed ventral valve (Garwood, 2007) I know it's C. clypeata. Most of my animals unfortunately lack the posterior part/pygidium. Is there some way to distinguish two species based on the front part of the animal? Thank you very much for your help! Barbara ________ Barbara Mikac, M.Sc. Marine Research Centre Rudjer Boskovic Institute G. Paliaga 5 52210 Rovinj Croatia _______________________________________________ Annelida mailing list Post: Annelida@net.bio.net Help/archive: http://www.bio.net/biomail/listinfo/annelida Resources: http://www.annelida.net From kfitzhugh from nhm.org Tue Oct 20 17:41:48 2009 From: kfitzhugh from nhm.org (J. Kirk Fitzhugh) Date: Tue Oct 20 17:47:32 2009 Subject: [Annelida] Robber pleads guilty after leech provides DNA Message-ID: <4ADE3CAC.6020809@nhm.org> I'll be giving my usual leech feeding demonstrations this Sunday night at our annual Haunted Museum event at work. While I convey the utility of leeches for medical purposes, this amusing article just came out, with a whole new twist to their importance. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ J. Kirk Fitzhugh, Ph.D. Curator of Polychaetes Invertebrate Zoology Section Research & Collections Branch Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County 900 Exposition Blvd Los Angeles CA 90007 Phone: 213-763-3233 FAX: 213-746-2999 e-mail: kfitzhug@nhm.org http://www.nhm.org/site/research-collections/polychaetous-annelids ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.bio.net/bionet/mm/annelida/attachments/20091020/cb59309e/attachment.html From g.read from niwa.co.nz Tue Oct 20 19:12:55 2009 From: g.read from niwa.co.nz (Geoff Read) Date: Tue Oct 20 19:14:12 2009 Subject: Received Re: [Annelida] Wu, Wu & Qian 1987 In-Reply-To: <4ADEEAD8.8045.00D5.1@niwa.co.nz> References: <4ADEEAD8.8045.00D5.1@niwa.co.nz> Message-ID: <4ADF08D5.8045.00D5.1@niwa.co.nz> Happy to report I now have a copy thanks. Thank you Michael. Wu Q, Wu B, Qian P 1987. Five new species of polychaetous Annelida (Ampharetidae and Terebellidae) from South Oceans. Investigatio Et Studium Naturae Museum Historiae Naturae Shanghaiense 7: 39-54. Geoff NIWA is the trading name of the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research Ltd. From eri.assis from gmail.com Wed Oct 21 10:06:06 2009 From: eri.assis from gmail.com (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Jos=E9_Eriberto_Assis?=) Date: Wed Oct 21 14:05:03 2009 Subject: [Annelida] help on determination of Praxillella and Clymenura In-Reply-To: <1256030453.6990.24.camel@posidonia> References: <1256030453.6990.24.camel@posidonia> Message-ID: Dear Dr. Barbara I have been work with Madanids - Phylogenetic Analysis of the Maldanidae Polychaeta Annelida, in the thesis to obtained the title of master, and I had some problems with some species without one the parts. For the Maldanids is very hard to idetifly only anterior or posterior end. If you have many specimens you can identifly to compare to specimens. In relation to the *Praxillella *and* Clymenura *both are very hard becouse the main diferences consist in the pygidium. You can make draws of the uncinus and chaeta, and pheraps you can to identifly to species. The problem also consist in that the description some species yet insuficient to make to compare. However, good luck. Best wishes Eriberto De Assis On Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 6:20 AM, Barbara Mikac wrote: > Dear colleagues, > > Can you advice me how can I determine Praxillella species based only on > the front part of the animal containing the head (thus it's not possible > to count the number of chaetigers). Sometimes I also have only pygidium, > but then usually without the front part. In the Adriatic Sea there > should be present: P. affinis, P. gracilis, P. praetermissa and P. > lophosetosa. P. gracilis should be easy to determin because it should > have distinctly elongated palpode on the prostomium. P. affinis should > have ocelli and P. praetermissa not. But what about P. lophosetosa? Are > the characteristics I mentioned above sufficient to distinguish the > species anyway? > > I also have a problem to determine Clymenura clypeata and C. tricirrata, > that could be both potentially found on the stations I am working on. > It's quite easy when I have the pygidium, because if it has muscular > ring with three cirri originating from it, I know it's C. tricirrata. On > the other hand if it only has a muscular ring forming a pygidial plate > and an anal cone with a well developed ventral valve (Garwood, 2007) I > know it's C. clypeata. Most of my animals unfortunately lack the > posterior part/pygidium. Is there some way to distinguish two species > based on the front part of the animal? > > Thank you very much for your help! > > Barbara > > ________ > Barbara Mikac, M.Sc. > Marine Research Centre > Rudjer Boskovic Institute > G. Paliaga 5 > 52210 Rovinj > Croatia > > > _______________________________________________ > Annelida mailing list > Post: Annelida@net.bio.net > Help/archive: http://www.bio.net/biomail/listinfo/annelida > Resources: http://www.annelida.net > -- Msc. JOS? ERIBERTO DE ASSIS Universidade Federal da Para?ba Centro de Ci?ncias Exatas e da Natureza Departamento de Sistem?tica e Ecologia Jo?o Pessoa, Para?ba, Brasil. CEP: 58051-900. e-mail: eri.assis@gmail.com (55) 83 - 8889-8791 (celular/mobile) Curr?culo lattes: http://dgp.cnpq.br/buscaoperacional/detalheest.jsp?est=4531682067639497 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.bio.net/bionet/mm/annelida/attachments/20091021/a7b9d9b3/attachment.html From Pat.Hutchings from austmus.gov.au Wed Oct 21 20:30:48 2009 From: Pat.Hutchings from austmus.gov.au (Pat Hutchings) Date: Wed Oct 21 20:34:08 2009 Subject: [Annelida] position vacant In-Reply-To: <4A998993.8045.00D5.0@niwa.co.nz> References: <4A905FF1.1000304@nhm.org><42EC96C3-03DA-429A-8CF1-045E56909472@ucsd.edu><4A908237.6020209@nhm.org><449C2ED5-647A-4DA2-9BE5-DD1B27CB60C6@ucsd.edu> <4A998993.8045.00D5.0@niwa.co.nz> Message-ID: The Australian Museum is advertising for a new Assistant Director -head of Research and Collections Assistant Director – Research and Collections, SES Grade 1, Assistant Director Australian Museum. (Pos No AM304/009). Term Appointment (SES) Full-time. Please visit AM website www.australianmuseum.net.au/position/assistant-director-research-collections Closing date:13 November 2009 Position Description:AM304 Assistant Director RC.docSummary Assistant Director, Research & Collections, SES Grade 1, Australian Museum. Term Appointment (SES). Full-time. Position No. AM304/09. An attractive remuneration package including salary in the range of $144,800 to $169,550 p.a. will be negotiated with the successful applicant for a contract period of up to 5 years, with annual performance reviews. Lead the strategic planning and management of the Research and Collections Division of the Australian Museum, and promote the scientific capacities of the Museum to external stakeholders Selection Criteria: 1.Excellent leadership, vision, management, communication and negotiation skills, with a commitment to best practice, ideally in a research context. 2.Appropriate Tertiary qualifications (PhD or equivalent experience), with practical professional experience and accumulated knowledge relevant to the management of cultural, zoological and geological research and/or collections. 3.Ability to manage the day-to-day operations of a complex multi-disciplinary research/educational division. 4.Awareness of relevant current science issues, and of the scientific community roles of modern natural history museums. 5.Ability to develop and implement strategies for the advancement of the Division with limited resources, in line with Museum and Government policy and Public Sector reform principles. 6.Ability to attract funding for research and related programs. 7.Effectiveness in formulating policy and ability to contribute to the development of Government policies relating to science, especially in the areas of biodiversity, scientific information and conservation. Applications Marked ‘Confidential’ To: Human Resources Officer, via email, hr@austmus.gov.au or visit jobsnsw www.jobs.nsw.gov.au/ Assistant Director - Research and Collections for full job details including selection criteria, inquiries contact and the position description. Dr Pat Hutchings Senior Principal Research Scientist Research Branch Marine Invertebrates Australian Museum 6 College Street Sydney NSW 2010 t 61 2 93206243 f 61 2 93206050 m 0417486821 pat.hutchings@austmus.gov.au www.australianmuseum.net.au Just released: The Great Barrier Reef Biology, Environment and Management edited by Pat Hutchings, Mike Kingsford and Ove Hoegh-Guldberg. CSIRO Publishing 2008. ##################################################################################### This e-mail message has been scanned for Viruses and Content and cleared by MailMarshal ##################################################################################### The Australian Museum. ‘Egyptian Treasures: art of the pharaohs’ exhibition until 6 December 2009! The views in this email are those of the user and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Museum. The information contained in this email message and any accompanying files is or may be confidential and is for the intended recipient only. If you are not the intended recipient, any use, dissemination, reliance, forwarding, printing or copying of this email or any attached files is unauthorised. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete it and notify the sender. The Australian Museum does not guarantee the accuracy of any information contained in this e-mail or attached files. As Internet communications are not secure, the Australian Museum does not accept legal responsibility for the contents of this message or attached files. Please consider the environment before printing this email. From gread from actrix.gen.nz Thu Oct 29 20:23:15 2009 From: gread from actrix.gen.nz (Geoff Read) Date: Thu Oct 29 20:24:23 2009 Subject: [Annelida] Odontosyllis is not a fireworm Message-ID: Hi all, I was surprised to see a press release for a recent paper by Scripps biologists repeatedly use the term 'fireworm' for an Odontosyllis syllid with bioluminescence, as though it was the accepted term for this group of worms. It sounds impressive. And in analogy with firefly (a beetle!) perhaps? Thus people would think the worms they already know as fireworms would also have this bioluminescence. However fireworm or fire worm is the common name for neurotoxic Amphinomidae such as Eurythoe complanata as painfully encountered by divers. Its application to Odontosyllis species is comparatively rare, and, I think, aberrant both in science lit and popular writings. And in Flickr there are 490 fireworm photos - yep, they seem to be overwhelmingly Eurythoe and the like. No syllids noticed. Identity confusion is somewhat lessened with scientific names. And fighting 'slippage' in the precision of common names is probably futile. But herein my (mild) disapproval is registered. FWIW. http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu/Releases/?releaseID=970 Geoff -- Geoffrey B. Read, Ph.D. Wellington, NEW ZEALAND gread@actrix.gen.nz