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Methods
Checklist of Shallow-Water Marine Polychaetous
Annelida of Florida
Thomas H. Perkins
This checklist of Florida shallow-water polychaetes,
which current research is showing to be a weakly supported
monophyletic group (Rouse and Fauchald,
1997), was derived from a variety of sources. These
sources include 1) the extensive systematic literature
on Florida polychaetes, which begins primarily with the
publication on Florida annelids, in German, of Ehlers
(1887), and which has not been systematically synthesized
to allow for rapid identification; 2) the published
results of ecological surveys; 3) data from specimen collections;
4) unpublished data and specimens examined
from recently completed estuarine environmentalassessment
programs (EMAP) conducted in Florida by
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) Coastal Oceans Program; and 5) other published
and unpublished information from surveys conducted
by the State of Florida and by qualified consultants
for the state, the federal government, and private
organizations. As a result, reliable polychaete
identification data are available from almost all areas
of the state.
The primary specimen repository from which
species names were extracted for inclusion on this list
is the Marine Specimen Collection housed at the
Florida Marine Research Institute, St. Petersburg. Data
from the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Museum, Fort
Pierce, Florida, were also used. Other specimens from
Florida, some of which have been examined but data
for which were not generally used in compiling the list,
are housed at the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection’s central laboratory, Tallahassee,
and district offices; in the Texas A&M Oceanographic
Collection, College Station, Texas; at Gulf Coast Research
Laboratory, Ocean Springs, Mississippi; at Barry
Vittor & Associates, Inc., Mobile, Alabama; in collections
of the National Museum of Natural History,
Washington, D.C.; and in collections of other national
and international museums.
Citations for most of the literature listed as helpful
in identifying Florida polychaetes (see References)
were extracted from the Ward and Fauchald bibliography
(Ward and Fauchald, 1997) available on the internet.
Additional, more recent citations and local references
not included in that bibliography are also
listed among the polychaete references, resulting in
about 500 literature citations that are pertinent to the
identification of Florida polychaetes.
Criteria used to determine which species names to
include in the list were various combinations of the following:
1) location in estuarine and near-coastal waters
of the state in depths of about 37 m or less; 2) a
moderately skeptical determination by me of the reliability
of an identification, continued availability of
vouchers that will allow specimens to be reliably identified,
or both; and 3) for published “lettered” or unnamed
species, the availability of a description and
voucher specimens that, with locality data, will allow
species to subsequently be identified or described. A
few taxa listed as “Genus name” cf. “species name,”
based on specimens in the FMRI Marine Specimen Collection
that possibly are that species and may not deserve
the “cf.”designation have been included on the
list.
Considering the state of knowledge of Florida
polychaetes, this list is a work in progress.There is no
doubt that there are names on the list that will prove
to be incorrect, and some species may be listed under
two or more names.There are specimens available of
many undescribed species in Florida waters that are
not listed, just as there are species that remain undiscovered.
The classification of the Polychaeta is currently
unstable, especially at categories higher than family.
The system in which the species are reported here is
based on the classical system of Pettibone (1982). Another
commonly used but different system, that of
Fauchald (1977a), was used by the authors of the Taxonomic
Guide to the Polychaetes of the Northern Gulf of
Mexico (Uebelacker and Johnson, 1984). A new, welldocumented
classification system for family groups
and higher categories has been proposed (Rouse and
Fauchald, 1997). Rouse and Fauchald state that it is
unlikely that any new classification will have any
longevity, but their system should provide the basis for
a stable and phylogenetically correct classification in
the future.
Acknowledgments
Many biologists have provided specimens over the
years. In particular, I thank Robert Ernest, Ecological
FMRI Technical Report TR-3 79