Capitellidae Grube, 1862

Wiklund, Helena, Neal, Lenka, Glover, Adrian G., Drennan, Regan, Muriel Rabone, & Dahlgren, Thomas G., 2019, Abyssal fauna of polymetallic nodule exploration areas, eastern Clarion-Clipperton Zone, central Pacific Ocean: Annelida: Capitellidae, Opheliidae, Scalibregmatidae, and Travisiidae, ZooKeys 883, pp. 1-82 : 1

Capitellidae Grube, 1862

Notes.

Capitellidae represent an important group of polychaetes owing to their use as indicators of environmental health (e.g., Tomassetti and Porrello 2005). Despite their importance, capitellids have a confused and unresolved taxonomy, with a large number of often monotypic genera and the presence of species complexes. Capitellid genera are distinguished largely on chaetal distribution in anterior segments and the number of thoracic segments (see e.g., Blake 2000a; Fauchald 1972). The need for revision of the family has been deemed necessary by several authors (e.g., Fauchald 1977; Ewing 1991; Blake 2000a), as it has been observed that chaetal distribution, particularly in the posterior thorax, may change with age (e.g., Ewing 1982; 1984; Blake 2000a). Green (2002) provided a useful overview of characters used in capitellid taxonomy.

At least two species were recognised in the UKSR material, five poorly preserved representatives of a species in the diverse genus Notomastus , and two specimens of a species representing a new genus based on morphological and genetic data. However, given the caveats of generic definitions given above, we choose not to provide the formal description of this species and genus, and make these data and vouchers available for future revision.