Clavadoce Hartman, 1936: 123

Cirrodoce Hartman & Fauchald, 1971: 39 –40 fide Blake, 1988.

Type species: Clavadoce splendida Hartman, 1936 (by original designation)

Diagnosis. Phyllodocidae with two frontal and one median antennae and one ventral pair of palps, segment 1 dorsally reduced, 4 pairs of tentacular cirri (1+2+1), neurochaetae present from segment 2, proboscis with diffusely distributed papillae, parapodia uniramous, longitudinal axis of ventral cirrus oriented obliquely to aciculum.

Remarks. The diagnosis above follows Pleijel (1991) with the following additions. One pair of large eyes (as also noted by Blake 1997). Anal cirri may be tapering (in Clavadoce cristata) or digitiform (in C. dorsolobata); unknown in other described species.

The four frontal appendages of phyllodocids, although typically similar in form, comprise a dorsal pair of antennae and a ventral pair of palps and are homologous with the structures of the same name in Nereididae and other Phyllodociformia. However, much of the earlier literature on Phyllodocidae refers collectively to these appendages as antennae.