Nephtyid Polychaetes from the west Coast of Phuket Island, Andaman Sea, Thailand, with Description of five new Species* A. NATEEWATHANA and J. HYLLEBERG (Communicated by P. A. HUTCHINGS) Nateewathana, a., & Hylleberg, J. Nephtyid polychaetes from the west coast of Phuket Island, Andaman Sea, Thailand, with description of five new species. Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 108(3), (1985) 1986: 195-215. Eight species of nephtyids have been collected in the Andaman Sea off the west coast of Phuket Island, Thailand, as part of a three-year programme on studies of marine macrobenthos. The polychaetes were collected during April 1980 — June 1982 from quantitative samples obtained at 15 stations ranging in depth from 10 to 30m. The eight species, comprising five new species and three new records from Thailand, are Aglaophamus phuketensis n. sp., Aglaophamus urupani n. sp., Aglaophamus cf. verrilli (Mcin-tosh, 1885), Inermonephlys cf. gallardi Fauchald 1968, Inermonephlys patongi n. sp., Micronephthys sphaerocirrata (Wesenberg-Lund, 1949), Nephtys danida n. sp. and Nephtys phasukin. sp. Anuwat Nateewathana and J or gen Hylleberg Phuket Marine Biological Center, P.O. Box 60, Phuket 83000, Thailand; a paper presented at the First International Polychaete Conference, Sydney, July 1983; manuscript received 24 October 1984, accepted for publication 19 June 1985. * Miscellaneous Contribution No. 21 from the Phuket Marine Biological Center, Thailand. Introduction Hartman (1950) provided a review of the morphological and taxonomic features of the family Nephtyidae and recognized three genera, Aglaophamus, Micronephthys and Nephtys. Fauchald (1968) added a fourth genus, Inermonephlys. Thirteen species of nephtyids have been found in the northern Indian Ocean (Hartman, 1974). Until now the polychaete fauna in the Andaman Sea has been little studied. Only one species, Nephtys malmgreni Theel, was recorded from the Andaman Sea (Fauvel, 1953). The present work enlarges our knowledge of nephtyids from the Andaman Sea on the basis of an ecological survey off Phuket Island, Thailand. Materials and Methods The present collections have been obtained along an approximately 40km-long stretch of the west coast of Phuket Island (8°N, 98° 20E), Andaman Sea, Thailand, as part of a three-year ecological survey (Hylleberg et al., 1985b) from 1980-1982. The material was collected from fifteen stations, ranging in depth from 10-30m, off four bays: the open bays of the Airport, Bang Tao, and Kamala, and the sheltered bay of Patong (fig. 1 in Hylleberg and Nateewathana, 1984a). The distribution of the nephtyids is described in Hylleberg and Nateewathana (1984b) where Aglaophamus sp.l and sp.2 refer to A. phuketensis n.sp. and^. urupani n.sp., respectively. Inermonephtys sp.l = /. patongi n.sp., and Nephtys sp.l and sp.2 = N danida n.sp. and A'', phasuki n.sp., respectively. Details of the sediment of the various stations are described in Hylleberg et al. (1985a). A total of 780 nephtyids were collected and identified. Holotypes and paratypes are deposited in the Reference Collection of Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC), Phuket 83000, Thailand (Boonprakob and Hylleberg, 1983). Duplicate specimens PROC. LINN. Soc. N.S.W., 108 (3), (1985) 1986
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