New records and a new species of 'Hermundura' Miiller, 1858, the senior synonym of 'Loandalia' monro, 1936 (Annelida: Phyllodocida: Pilargidae) from northern Australia and New Guinea

Abstract

The Principle of Priority (ICZN 1999) is applied in resurrecting the generic name Hermundura Miiller, 1858 for pilargid polychaetes (Annelida) formerly referred to as Loandalia Monro, 1936 and Parandalia Emerson and Fauchald, 1971. All available specimens of Hermundura from northern Australia and New Guinea are described based on material held in the collections of Australia's natural history museums. Our study recognises two species, H. gladstonensis (Marks and Hocknull, 2006) comb. nov. and a new species, H. philipi sp. nov., from near Mornington Island in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria. The former species is redescribed, and new information on intraspecific variability is provided, including the presence of hardened, cuticular structures and a muscle band (sphincter) of the anterior alimentary canal. Analysis of these structures has led to a re-evaluation of the so-called 'jaws' of the closely related monotypic genus Talehsapia Fauvel, 1932, and the conclusion that they are homologous with the pharyngeal sphincter of Hermundura. Talehsapia therefore is also synonymised with Hermundura. The genus Hermundura now contains 17 species including the type species, Hermundura tricuspis Miiller, 1858, H. philipi sp. nov., and fifteen others, which are all new name combinations, viz. Hermundura annandalei (Fauvel, 1932), H. aberrans (Monro, 1936), H. fauvel i (Berkeley and Berkeley, 1941), H. americana (Hartman, 1947), H. gracilis (Hartmann-Schroder, 1959),//. indica (Thomas, 1963),//. ocularis (Emerson and Fauchald, 1971), H. maculata (Intes and Le Loeuff, 1975), H. bennei (Solis-Weiss, 1983), H. riojai (Salazar-Vallejo, 1986), H. vivianneae (Salazar-Vallejo and Reyes Barragan, 1986), H. evelinae (Leon-Gonzalez, 1991), H. salazarvallejoi (Leon-Gonzalez, 1991), H.fredrayorum (Marks and Hocknull, 2006) and H. gladstonensis (Marks and Hocknull, 2006). The genus Hermundura appears to be restricted to the tropics and subtropics, both in Australia and globally.