Tripolydora Woodwick, 1964

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 : 686

Tripolydora Woodwick, 1964

Tripolydora Woodwick, 1964: 155 .

Type-species. Tripolydora spinosa Woodwick, 1964 , by monotypy.

Remarks. Tripolydora Woodwick, 1964 is a monotypic genus containing T. spinosa . With heavy modified spines on chaetiger 5 in adults, T. spinosa has been considered as a polydorin, member of the Polydora -complex (currently defined as a tribe Polydorini Benham, 1896 sensu Radashevsky, 2012 ). Based on general appearance of the worms and of the fifth chaetiger, Woodwick (1964) suggested closer affinities of Tripolydora with Pseudopolydora than with other polydorins. Blake & Woodwick (1981) examined adults using both the light and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and proposed close relationship of T. spinosa to a non-polydorin genus Microspio Mesnil, 1896 . This hypothesis was not however supported in a phylogenetic analysis of the spioniform polychaetes provided by Blake & Arnofsky (1999). The analysis of a very limited suit of morphological and reproductive characters resulted in Tripolydora nested among polydorin taxa which relationships remained entirely unresolved ( Blake & Arnofsky 1999: fig. 13).

In Australia, Tripolydora was not reported so far in any taxonomic or ecological survey, but Rouse (1988) described fine structure of spermatozoa of Tripolydora sp. from Heron Island. The specimens studied by Rouse (1988; AM W 200627) were examined and referred to Pseudopolydora sp. (Radashevsky unpublished).