First record of Heteromastus filiformis (Polychaeta: Capitellidae) from Korean waters, with a taxonomic note on the genus

Abstract

The family Capitellidae Grube, 1862 is one of the typical inhabitants of marine soft bottom sediments and important in the energy budgets of benthic environments because of usually high abundances and their feeding habits as the non­selective deposit feeders (Dean, 2001; García­Garza and León­González, 2011). This family is divided into several genera based on the number of the thoracic segments and the arrangement of capillary chaetae and hooded hooks (Fauchald, 1977; Amaral, 1980; Hutchings and Rainer, 1982; Warren et al., 1994; Green, 2002). Currently, 44 genera have been classified and about 170 species are known worldwide in this fam­ ily (Fauchald, 1977; Yabe and Mawatari, 1998; Green, 2002). Because of their high abundance and ecological im­ portance in marine benthic environments, many species of capitellid polychaetes have been included in various ecological studies as the major components of macro­ benthic faunal community (Dean, 2001; García­Garza and León­González, 2011). Among them, Heteromastus filiformis (Claparède, 1864), the type species of the ge­ nus, is known as a cosmopolitan one bearing wide vari­ ety of the habitats and has been referred to in many eco­ logical studies (Hutchings and Rainer, 1982). In Korean waters, only three capitellid species each assigned in different genera, Capitella capitata Eisig, 1887, Notomastus latericeus Sars, 1851, and Dasybranchus cauducus Grube, 1846, are taxonomically recorded (Paik, 1978; 1979; 1980; 1982; 1989). Besides to these, two capitellid species, Heteromastus filiformis (Claparède, 1864) and Mediomastus californiensis Hartman, 1944, have been reported as one of the members of benthic macroinvertebrate community through many ecological studies without any taxonomical consideration (Hong et al., 2000; Choi et al., 2003; Shin et al., 2004; Seo et al., 2009; Jung et al., 2014, etc.). Although Heteromastus filiformis is one of the capitellid species that has been most frequently reported from Korean waters by such ecological studies (Jung et al., 1997; 2012; Hong et al., 2000; Choi et al., 2003; Shin et al., 2004, etc.), its taxo­ nomical reality has not yet been examined in Korean wa­ ters. The authors collected the specimens of H. filiformis during the study on the polychaete fauna from Korea, and carefully examined them with the consideration of taxonomy of the genus. In the present study, the authors dealt with the genus Journal of Species Research 5(3):264­271, 2016