A Review of the Genus Eunice - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

ABSTRACT
Fauchald, Kristian. A Review of the Genus Eunice (Polychaeta: Eunicidae) Based upon Type
Material. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, number 523,422 pages, 117 figures, 53 tables,
1992.—The genus Eunice has been widely reported in all kinds of marine environment. A total
of 286 names have been applied to taxa originally described in, or subsequently referred to, the
genus. All such taxa published prior to 1985 have been accounted for below. Of these, some or
all types of about 175 are available and are described below. Twenty-five species are
incompletely known; types are missing and original descriptions (or subsequent descriptions of
types) are insufficient to relate these species to the rest. The descriptions of these species have
been briefly summarized. A key to species includes nearly all species for which types were
available. Species considered incompletely known are excluded from the key, but are included
when possible in a set of tables comparing similar species. Forty-seven named taxa are
indeterminable. Twenty-two have been referred to other genera, including some new
combinations. In some cases the type lot included two species; some of these types could be
referred to other, known species; however, four species are described as new. Seven species have
been given new names for nomenclatural reasons.
Attempts to group the 206 reasonably well-characterized species into supra-specific taxa
using cladistic techniques did not lead to interpretable results. The reasons might include the
very large number of species compared to the number of characters. A detailed analysis of the
characters has been started using freshly collected material in an attempt to expand the number
of characters and measure the variability of currently used characters. Similar reviews are
planned for the remaining eunicean genera.
OFFICIAL PUBLICATION DATE is handstamped in a limited number of initial copies and is
recorded in the Institution's annual report, Smithsonian Year. SERIES COVER DESIGN: The coral
Montastrea cavernosa (Linnaeus).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publicalion Data
Fauchald, Kristian.
A review of the Genus Eunice (Polychaeta-Eunicidac) based upon type material / Kristian Fauchald.
p. cm.—(Smithsonian contributions to zoology ; no. 523)
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Eunice (Annelida). I. Title. II. Series.
QU.S54 no. 523
[QL391.A6]
59 s—dc20 91-19518
[595.1'47]
CIP
® The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48— 1984.