Harmothoe minuta (Potts, 1909)

Muir, Alexander I. & Bamber, Roger N., 2008, New polychaete (Annelida) records and a new species from Hong Kong: the families Polynoidae, Sigalionidae, Chrysopetalidae, Pilargiidae, Nereididae, Opheliidae, Ampharetidae and Terebellidae, Journal of Natural History 42 (9 - 12), pp. 797-814 : 798

Harmothoe minuta (Potts, 1909)

Material

One specimen from the epifauna of Fan Tsang Chau (Conic Island) Cave, 22 ° 219540 N 114 ° 239220E.

The scales (elytra) of Harmothoe minuta have a smooth edge, and the notochaetae have large serrations proximally and much smaller serrations distally. Wu et al. (1997) record H. minuta from the Xisha Islands, South China Sea; it had previously been recorded from the Andaman Sea, the Maldives, the Red Sea and Suez, as a commensal on crinoids ( Fauvel 1953). This material represents the first record for Hong Kong.

Harmothoe is a large genus, which has never been completely revised. Two other species have been recorded from Hong Kong waters.

Shin (1982) records Harmothoe imbricata (Linnaeus, 1767) from the Tolo Harbour and Tolo Channel, Hong Kong, and this species was later recorded from southern Hong Kong waters by Ong Che et al. (1999). Wu et al. (1997) record H. imbricata from Bohai, the Yellow Sea and East China Sea. The scales of H. imbricata have a small lateral fringe of papillae, and the notochaetae have an array of equal serrations along the edge. It is recorded from most of the northern hemisphere and from New Caledonia, littorally on rocky shores, sub-littorally to 230 m on varied substrata, in tubes of other polychaetes and from brackish water in estuaries ( Chambers and Muir 1997).

Hanley (1992, p. 363) reported Harmothoe dictyophora (Grube, 1878) , which he described as ‘‘one of the most widely distributed species in the tropical and subtropical Indo-West Pacific’’, from Hong Kong waters. It has a polygonal pattern and large bifurcated spines on the scales.