Annelida (Segmented Worms)
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The Annelid (marine worm) collection comprises almost 20,000 lots of registered specimens, including 44 holotypes (standard reference for the name of a species) and 101 paratypes (secondary name-bearing types). The marine bristle worms, Polychaetes (Polychaeta) are by far the best represented group, but the collection also includes earthworms and leeches (Clitellata). The Polychaete collection has representatives from marine and estuarine areas throughout northern Australia, in particular Darwin Harbour, Bing Bong (MacArthur River) and Gove. Other areas well represented in the collection are north-western Australia, tropical Queensland, PNG and the Timor and Coral Seas. The collection also comprises small numbers of lots in several unrelated worm-like phyla including Echiura (spoon worms), Sipuncula (peanut worms), Chaetognatha (arrow worms), Enteropneusta (acorn worms), Nemertea (ribbon worms), Nematoda (round worms), Phoronida, Platyhelminthes (flat worms) and Priapulida. The section can provide expert identification of polychaetes and loans and exchanges of worm specimens to bona fide researchers. The Annelid section is also responsible for other 'worms'. |
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Research
A wide variety of taxonomic research projects on polychaete worms is currently being undertaken in the Annelid section. These include an inventory of polychaete worms from Darwin Harbour.
Research data including biogeographic & morphometric data matrices are available for download.
PARTNER is an international collaborative project to document and describe species in the family Nereididae from tropical seas, the taxonomy of Taiwanese Nereididae (with Dr Hwey Lian Hsieh, Academia Sinica, Taiwan), the taxonomy of Indonesian polychaetes (with Inayat Al Hakim, Research Centre for Oceanography, LIPI, Jakarta), and the taxonomy of the families Chrysopetalidae and Palmyridae (Charlotte Watson).
A series of studies on reproduction in Nereididae is being undertaken together with Dr Paul Schroeder, University of Washington, USA. Visit the PARTNER website.
Contact
Dr Chris Glasby
Curator of Annelids
Tel: +61-(0)8-8999 8108
Email: museum.magnt@nt.gov.au
Recent Publications
Glasby, C.J. & Hutchings, P.A. 2010. A new species of Marphysa Quatrefages, 1865 (Polychaeta: Eunicida: Eunicidae) from northern Australia and a review of similar taxa from the Indo-west Pacific, including the genus Nauphanta Kinberg, 1865. Zootaxa 2352: 29-45.
Hocknull, S.A. & Glasby, CJ. 2010. Diversity and ecology of Pilargidae (Annelida: Polychaeta) from the Gulf of Carpentaria and Arafura Sea, northern Australia. Zoosymposia 2: 537-550.
Bakken, T., Glasby, C.J. & Wilson, R.S. 2009. A review of paragnath morphology in Nereididae (Polychaeta). Zoosymposia 2: 305-316.
Glasby, C.J. & Aguardo, T. 2009. A new species and new records of the anthozoan commensal genus Alcyonosyllis (Polychaeta: Syllidae: Syllinae). The Beagle, Records of the Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory 25: 55-63.
Glasby, C.J. & Krell, F.T. 2009. Bollandiella nom. nov. for the polychaete genus Bollandia Glasby, 1994 (Annelida: Polychaeta: Phyllodocida: ?Syllidae). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 122(3): 355-356.
Glasby, C.J., Read G.B., Lee K.E., Blakemore R.J., Fraser, P.M., Pinder A.M., Erséus C., Moser, W.E., Burreson E.M., Govedich F.R., Davies, R.W. & Dawson E.W. 2009. Chapter 17, pp 312-358, Phylum Annelida – Bristle worms, Earthworms, and Leeches. The New Zealand Inventory of Biodiversity. Volume 1. Kingdom Animalia – Radiata, Lophotrochozoa, and Deuterostomia. Canterbury University Press.
Glasby, C.J., Timm, T., Muir, A.I., & Gil, J. 2009. Catalogue of non-marine Polychaeta (Annelida) of the World. Zootaxa 2070: 1-52.
Probert, P.K., Glasby, C.J., Grove, S.L., Paavo, B.L. & Read, G.B. 2009. Bathyal polychaete assemblages in the region of the Subtropical front, Chatham Rise, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 43(5): 1121-1135.
