Generic characters in the Polynoinae (Annelida, Polychaeta), with notes on the higher classification of scale-worms ( Aphroditacea) A. I. Muir Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD Introduction A comparison of Fauvel, 1923 and Hartmann-Schroder, 1971, with Hartman, 1959, 1965 and Fauchald, 1977 shows that the limits of the genus Harmothoe and its sub-genera are confused. Antinoella Augener, 1928, Austrolaenilla Bergstrom, 1916, Eucranta Malmgren, 1865, Eunoe Malmgren, 1865 and Harmothoe Kinberg, 1855, are variously considered as genera or sub-genera of Harmothoe sensu lato. It was decided that this situation should be investigated preparatory to a study of the scale-worms of north-western Europe (George & Muir, in prep.). The sub-family under consideration in this paper is often referred to as the Harmothoinae Willey, 1902. However, as the categories family and sub-family are co-ordinate according to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature 1964 (articles 36 and 37), the correct name is Polynoinae Kinberg, 1855. It should be borne in mind also that the word Polynoinae is often used to refer to that taxon herein called the family Polynoidae, when that family is thought of as a sub-family of the Aphroditidae (e.g. Fauvel, 1923; Day, 1967). The family Aphroditidae as used by these authors is equivalent to Fauchald's (1977) super-family Aphroditacea, i.e. it includes all scale-worms and excludes all others. Materials and methods Thirty-four of the genera or sub-genera, including the disputed five, of the Polynoinae were investigated. The type specimens of the type species of each genus were examined, where possible. The other type specimens appear to be either missing or not available on loan. For all except one of these remaining genera it was considered unsafe to rely on early, incomplete descriptions or possibly misidentified specimens from localities sometimes far distant from the type locality. The exception was made for the important genus Polynoe, which provides the stem for the family-group names. Polynoe scolopendrina, the species usually cited as the type species (see Muir, 1979), has been described many times and there are many specimens in the collection of the BM(NH). A description was therefore compiled from Savigny, 1822; Fauvel, 1923; Day, 1967; Hartmann-Schroder, 1971 and ZK 1938.5.25.7, a specimen from East London, South Africa, which matches the description of Savigny, 1822. The type locality is 'cotes de 1' ocean', which refers to the Atlantic coast of France. As Savigny's polychaete type speci-mens are not in the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris (Renaud-Mornant, pers. comm.}, they have probably been destroyed (see Pallary, 1932). The nominal genera studied are listed in Table 1, which also gives the Operational Taxonomic Unit (O.T.U.) numbers, i.e. Bathylevensteinia was the twenty-fifth taxon to have its details entered into the computer. Bull. Br. Mus. nat. Hist. (Zool.) 43 (3) : 1 53-177 Issued 30 September 1982
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