Review and revision of the genus Sternaspis (Polychaeta: Sternaspidae) using cladistics on morphological characters
Date
2010-02-11T19:58:12Z
Authors
Sendall, Kelly
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Abstract
A comprehensive worldwide review and revision of the genus Sternaspis (Polychaeta: Sternaspidae) is presented based on type material, or material collected from type localities. The phylogeny was reconstructed using morphological characters and PAUP* with maximum parsimony set as the criterion. The more important characters were: the form of pharyngeal spines or their apposition to each other within a row; the form or distribution of cuticular papillae; number of chaetal fascicles associated with the margins of the ventral shield; and the presence or position of the peg chaetae. Sternaspis scutata (Ranzani. 1817) is synonymised with three other species; S. costata Marenzeller, 1979 is synonymised with one other species. S. affinis Stimpson, 1864 and S. spinosa Sluiter, 1882 are emended. S. fossor var. africana Augener, 1918 is raised to species status as S. africana. Two new species, S. andamana and S. gudmundi are also described. Comments on all valid species are provided.
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polychaeta