Hi all,
If you are a user of WoRMS for finding current and former polychaete names, and all the taxonomy literature, here is a new explanatory open access article on the categories, terminology, and practices that are optimum standards for WoRMS editors, and on the development history. Some recommendations and categories available have changed relatively recently, and some presentations will be done slightly differently between different phyla, so please be tolerant that the Annelida entries will not always be absolutely consistent with the recommendations. If not there will be a reason why. I personally would like to think the marine annelids have the best coverage of the major marine phyla, especially of links to the original literature, thanks to the solid foundation given by previous compilers. However, we have a long way to go before all polychaete entries are updated and consistent.
Last year was the 10 year anniversary of WoRMS.
Improving nomenclatural consistency: a decade of experience in the World Register of Marine Species. European Journal of Taxonomy *(389): 1-24
Horton; Gofas; Kroh; Poore; Read; Rosenberg; Stöhr; Bailly; Boury-Esnault; Brandão; Costello; Decock; Dekeyzer; Hernandez; Mees; Paulay; Vandepitte; Vanhoorne; Vranken,. (2017).
https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2017.389http://www.europeanjournaloftaxonomy.eu/index.php/ejt/article/view/512
Entry to WoRMS 'Polychaeta' starts here: http://www.marinespecies.org/polychaeta/ By later in the year we hope to update and have a new interface covering all Annelida.
Other regional and taxa subregisters are here: http://www.marinespecies.org/subregisters.php
When you need to search all marine taxa names at once just use the general interface http://www.marinespecies.org/
Citations: One thing I've noticed recently is people citing WoRMS polychaete content in papers by using the general Editorial board citation. If the reference is to our genus, species, or family coverage there is a citation available on every page. Here is an example:
Read, G.; Londoño Mesa, Mario H.; Bellan, G. (2016). Amphitrite Müller, 1771. In: Read, G.; Fauchald, K. (Ed.) (2017). World Polychaeta database. Accessed at http://www.marinespecies.org/polychaeta/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=129686 on 2018-01-12
Lastly, if you find a section that is out of date, please let editors know. We'll fix it ASAP, but remember we are volunteers with other jobs and we are few in number, and often the taxonomic history is not straightforward and needs investigation. Sometimes the work load gets overwhelming.
Cheers,
Geoff Read (Chief editor, WoRMS Annelida)
