Aonides Claparède, 1864

Radashevsky, Vasily I., 2015, Spionidae (Annelida) from Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia: the genera Aonides, Dipolydora, Polydorella, Prionospio, Pseudopolydora, Rhynchospio, and Tripolydora, Zootaxa 4019 (1), pp. 635-694 : 638

Aonides Claparède, 1864

Aonides Claparède, 1864: 505 ; Pettibone 1963: 90; Foster 1971: 65 –66; Blake & Kudenov 1978: 189; Imajima 1989: 214; Blake 1996: 100; Brito et al. 2006: 60.

Type-species. Aonides auricularis Claparède, 1864 [= Nerine oxycephala Sars, 1862 ], by monotypy.

Remarks. Aonides Claparède, 1864 is a small group of spionid polychaetes currently comprising nine species. The oldest and the type species of the group, A. oxycephala (Sars, 1862) originally described from Norway, has been reported worldwide and considered cosmopolitan. These reports, however, likely comprise a series of similar or sibling species, thus more detailed morphological comparisons and molecular investigations are needed to clarify their taxonomy.

The first Aonides from Australia were identified by Blake & Kudenov (1978). The authors reported that worms from New South Wales and Victoria had at least 20 pairs of branchiae, bidentate hooks in the notopodia from about chaetiger 29 and in the neuropodia from about chaetiger 40. Hutchings & Turvey (1984) reported that the only anterior fragment of Aonides from South Australia had occipital antenna on the prostomium, branchiae on chaetigers 2–18, bidentate hooks in notopodia from chaetiger 22–24 and in neuropodia from chaetiger 22. Both Blake & Kudenov (1978) and Hutchings & Turvey (1984) concluded that their worms agreed well with the description of A. oxycephala by Ramos (1976) and identified them as such. However, originally described from Norway, A. oxycephala may not occur in Australia. The conspecificity of the Australian individuals and those from Norway should be confirmed in a molecular analysis.