MORPHOLOGICAL VARIABILITY OF THE HAPLOSYLLIS (SYLLIDAE: POLYCAHETA) SPECIES-COMPLEX IN AUSTRALIAN SEAS

Abstract

The species of the Haplosyllis spongicola (Grube 1855) complex have been a topic of research during the last years, due to the high variability of their morphological characters and the high number of non-described species. In the first contribution of this worldwide taxonomic revision, Martin et al. (2003) studied 28 populations around the world with morphometric and classic morphological approaches, revealing the existence of a pseudo-sibling species-complex. Since then, two new species have been described, Haplosyllis crassicirrata from Japan (Aguado et al., 2006) and H. loboi from Argentina (Paola et al. 2006), and the type species, H. spongicola, has been re-described and distinguished from other two new species, H. carmenbritoae from Canary Islands and Geminosyllis granulosa from the Mediterranean sea (Lattig et al., 2007). In the present study, a great number of Haplosyllis from Australia have been examined and identified. Nine morphotypes have been found, of which seven will be formally described as new species, this being the first review of this sponge-symbiotic genus in Australian waters.