Abstract
We present an updated checklist of marine annelids from the Indian subcontinent. Records of annelid species were obtained from published and grey literatures and online databases. Our review of annelid publications was restricted to the Indian continental shelf region. This paper also discusses the taxonomic status of marine annelid species recorded from this region and problems that impede its research. The updated list comprises of 727 species belonging to 334 genera and 72 families. A total of 152 species have their type locality in India including 88 species that are endemic to the region. The current checklist indicates that 25% (183 species) of the records are questionable and require further examination. Our results highlight that marine annelid richness of the Indian sub-continent is underestimated with many of the native undescribed species being most likely concealed under ‘erroneous’ or ‘cosmopolitan’ records. With a combination of factors that include a lack of experts, funding, and failure to update regional literature has resulted in an incomplete state of knowledge for the marine annelid biodiversity from this region. Therefore, there is an urgent need for extensive and intensive sampling to discover new species, conduct detailed re-examinations of doubtful records and, collaborate within the local and international institutes and organizations to improve the regional biodiversity studies.
Highlights
The Phylum Annelida is among the most diverse invertebrate groups that inhabits the marine, freshwater, brackish, and terrestrial ecosystems
The type locality information was taken from the original descriptions; whenever original publications were not available, information was extracted from other publications, WoRMS, and online resources
For publications with ambiguous information, e.g., Willey (1905), did not clearly describe if the type locality of species recorded were in India or Sri Lanka, and because of this we did not consider this information in the type locality species list from India
Summary
The Phylum Annelida is among the most diverse invertebrate groups that inhabits the marine, freshwater, brackish, and terrestrial ecosystems. The evolution of numerous feeding guilds, modes of locomotion, and reproductive strategies allow them to inhabit a wide range of marine habitats, spanning from the intertidal to the deep sea (Carvalho et al 2013), including extreme environments such as Oxygen minimum zones (OMZ), cold seeps, and hydrothermal vents. Because of their diversity and dominance in most benthic habitats, they are a significant component of the marine ecosystem, forming an important link in the food web and nutrient recycling (Hutchings 1998). They are reliable ecological indicators for marine habitat quality because they are abundant, diverse, and contain both sensitive and tolerant species (Pocklington & Wells 1992)
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