, S. affinis Stimpson, 864 in the Northeastern Pacific, S. africana Augener, 98, stat.
, S. affinis Stimpson, 864 in the Northeastern Pacific, S. africana Augener, 98, stat. n. from Western Africa, S. andaCopyright K. Sendall, S.I. SalazarVallejo. This is an open access write-up distributed under the terms in the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 (CCBY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, offered the original author and supply are credited.Kelly Sendall Sergio I. SalazarVallejo ZooKeys 286: 4 (203)manensis sp. n. from the Andaman Sea, S. costata von Marenzeller, 879 from Japan, S. fossor Stimpson, 853 in the Northwestern Atlantic, S. islandica Malmgren, 867 from Iceland, S. maior Chamberlin, 99 in the Gulf of California, S. princeps Selenka, 885 from New Zealand, S. rietschi Caullery, 944 from abyssal depths around Indonesia, S. scutata (Ranzani, 87) in the Mediterranean Sea, S. spinosa Sluiter, 882 from Indonesia, and S. thorsoni sp. n. in the Iranian Gulf. Two genera are newly proposed to incorporate the remaining species: Caulleryaspis and Petersenaspis. Caulleryaspis gen. n. is defined by the presence of falcate introvert hooks, seven abdominal segments, and soft shields PubMed ID:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12172973 with sediment particles firmly adhered on them; it includes two species: C. gudmundssoni sp. n. from Iceland and C. laevis (Caullery, 944) comb. n. from Indonesia. Petersenaspis gen. n. is defined by the presence of spatulate introvert hooks, eight abdominal segments, and stiff shields with poorly defined ribs but no concentric line; it includes P. capillata (Nonato, 966) from PD1-PDL1 inhibitor 1 chemical information Brazil and P. palpallatoci sp. n. from the Philippines. Neotypes are proposed for eight species: S. thalassemoides, S. affinis, S. africana, S. costata, S. fossor, S. maior, S. scutata and S. spinosa, to stabilize these speciesgroup names, along with a lectotype is designated for S. laevis that is transferred to Caulleryaspis gen. n. The geographic array of most species appears to be significantly smaller than previously indicated, and for some species more material in good situation is necessary to clarify their distributions. Keys to genera and to all species are also included. Keywords Widespread species, taxonomy, systematic, Annelida, Echiurida, ventrocaudal shieldintroduction The peculiar, peanutshaped sternaspid polychaetes have already been recognized because the eighteenth century simply because they are prevalent in shallow water sandy bottoms. Immediately after the very first observations, their body shape was regarded as resembling a squash and therefore its nonLinnean name as Mentula cucurbitacea marina (Plancus 760), but others contact them gooseberry worms (Hartman and Reish 950). Otto (82) proposed Sternaspis, the genus name that now consists of most described species, but a single species had been formally described some years ahead of (Ranzani 87). The name was derived from two Greek words which means breast (stern, m.) and shield (aspis, f.) because Otto confused the body ends, whereas Ranzani had identified them correctly (Eysenhardt 88). The diagnosis by de Blainville (828:5000) repeated Otto’s confusion but corrected it inside the legend for figures that had been realigned for physique ends, and this was later confirmed by Audouin and MilneEdwards (829:82). Their colourful ventrocaudal shield has made these polychaetes simply recognized and explains the prevalent name of `mudowls’; this name is explained since the shield resembles the owl’s large eyes, whereas the physique resembles the bird’s resting physique shape. Sternaspidae can be a monogeneric 
family members of polychaetes with three nominal speci.