Annotated checklist of the polychaete species of the ... - Senckenberg

10 T. WEHE & D. FIEGE
Regarding the delimitation of the Arabian Sea to the south, only publications referring to
‘Arabian Sea’ in their title, and those in which the location of the species recorded is explicitly cited
as ‘Arabian Sea’, were taken into consideration, e.g. the publication by PETER (1973) ‘New Records
of Some Pelagic Polychaetes from the Arabian Sea …’ or respective species reported in ‘The Fauna
of India’ by FAUVEL (1953). Species recorded from the coastal waters of East Africa, Pakistan, India
or any islands (e.g. the Laccadives) without the geographical statement ‘Arabian’ were not taken
into account, e.g. ‘Polychaetes of Karachi’ by AZIZ (1938) or ‘Polychaetous annelids from the
Karachi coast’ by ISHAQ & MUSTAQUIM (1996). The delimitation of the Arabian Sea from the rest
of the Indian Ocean within this work is therefore more in terms of usage of the respective
geographical vocabulary, rather than in terms of geographical boundaries. For practical reasons this
procedure seems reasonable, especially as the Indian subcontinent has been the subject of several
other publications (e.g. FAUVEL 1932, 1953; HARTMAN 1974 a, 1974 b).
For historical reasons, different names have been in use for the seas around the Arabian
Peninsula in the past. The terminology used in this work follows SHEPPARD et al. (1992), with the
exception of the Arabian Gulf. SHEPPARD et al. (1992) only use the name ‘The Gulf’. However,
this ambiguous word could lead to misinterpretations concerning information on distribution, as
there are four other ‘Gulfs’ in the region; thus, in this checklist the term ‘Arabian Gulf’ is used
throughout.
Preparation and arrangement of the checklist
For the checklist, species names recorded in publications concerning the Arabian region were
compiled, checked for their validity and synonyms made evident. This checklist is based solely on
data presented in the literature and no specimens were examined, or descriptions compared. It
represents a list of species currently considered as valid in the polychaete literature. The occurrence
of all the species and specimens recorded (with the exception of those marked with *; see below)
needs to be confirmed if they have not yet been treated in a revisionary work, since there may be
misidentifications in the original references. This checklist intends to stimulate such work.
Families, genera and species are arranged in alphabetical order, to facilitate the search for any
given valid taxon. The use of the family names follows FAUCHALD & ROUSE (1997). An alphabetical
index at the end of the paper lists the valid species names as well as the available synonyms.
The synonymy of each species contains citations of (1) the original description, including
information on the type locality or the origin of specimens, as cited in the original references
(N.B.: there is often no precise type locality mentioned other than the assumed distribution of the
species or different collecting sites; therefore, the expression “Type locality/origin” is used
throughout), (2) all records and synonyms known from the area covered and (3) records from the
literature that have been used to check the taxonomic status of the respective species. Additionally,
information on the distribution of the species within the Arabian region and, where necessary,
taxonomic remarks are supplied.
In order to check the validity of the species names reported, the most recent literature was
used, preferably the latest taxonomic revision or review. A degree sign (°) marks the publication
used for verification. Nevertheless, the recurrent citation of Olga HARTMAN’s ‘Catalogue of
polychaetous annelids of the world’ (1959, 1965 a) indicates the scarcity of such basic and
important work. All taxa names recorded in the current manuscript and each of the respective lists
of synonyms are based on the particular references indicated by “°”. Records marked with an
asterisk (*) were verified specifically by the author(s) of the reference marked with “°”, based on