Morphology and biology of Laetmonice producta producta Grube (Polychaeta: Aphroditidae) in the Bellingshausen Sea and Antarctic Peninsula (Southern Ocean, Antarctica)

Abstract

The present paper reports on some morphological and biological features of the scale-worm Laetmonice producta producta Grube, 1877 (Polychaeta: Aphroditidae) in the northwestern sector of Antarctica. A total of 114 specimens were collected during the 2003 and 2006 cruises of the BENTART project on the shelf and upper slope of the Antarctic Peninsula and the Bellingshausen Sea. Specimens were collected using an Agassiz trawl at 22 stations covering a depth ranging from 115 to 1431 m. Bathymetric distribution, abundance and sizes, diet, presence of endosymbionts and epibionts, and some observations related to parapodial structure and chaetal types are discussed in relation to taxonomy and environmental characteristics and compared to previous data.