Caspian Sea Biodiversity Project under umbrella of Caspian Sea Environment Program

Check-list for Caspian Sea Polychaetes

by Vladislav V. Khlebovich

Family	Species	Year and Author of description	Origin	Status	Distribution areas	Data of the Last Study done
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Type - ANNELIDA Class - Polychaeta
Order – Phyllodocida
Nereididae	Hediste diversicolor	(O.F. Müller, 1776)	Was specially acclimatized from Azov Sea (Berdyansk region) to Caspian in 1939-1941 as food for sturgeons	Widely distributed in the shallow brackish waters of the Azov, Black, Mediterranean and European seas, including Baltic. Can to live in fresh water? Reproduction under salinity above 5 ‰.	Widely distributed in all Caspian waters.	Atlas of Caspian Sea invertebrates, 1968. Khlebovich, 1963, 1996
Order Terrebellida
Ampharetidae	Hypania invalida	(Grube, 1860)	Ponto-Caspian. Active invader into European rivers	Mass species. 2.5 – 415 m.	North, Middle and South Caspian	Atlas of Caspian Sea invertebrates, 1968. Annenkova, 1930
	Hypania antiqua	(Ostrooumoff, 1896)	Brackishwater limans and rivers of Black and Azov sea basins. Invade the North Caspian through Volga.	Up to 6-7 ‰ salinity	North Caspian	A.G. Tarasov, pers. comm.
	Hypaniolla kowalewskii	(Grimm, 1877)	Ponto-Caspian	4.5 – 78 m	North, Middle, and South Caspian	Atlas of Caspian Sea invertebrates, 1968. Annenkova, 1930
	Parhypania brevispinis	(Grube, 1860)	Caspian endemic	38-378 m	Middle and South Caspian	Atlas of Caspian Sea invertebrates, 1968. Annenkova, 1930
Order Sabelida
Sabellidae	Manayunkia caspia	Annenkova, 1929	Ponto-Caspian	20-60 m	North, Middle, and South Caspian	Atlas of Caspian Sea invertebrates, 1968. Annenkova, 1930
	Fabricia sabella ssp. caspia	Zenkewitsch, 1922	Caspian subspecies of the widely distributed boreal species	Among the algae in seashore	Middle and South Caspian	Atlas of Caspian Sea invertebrates, 1968. Annenkova, 1930
Serpulidae	Ficopomatus enigmaticus	(Fauvel, 1923) (as Mercierella)	Widely distributed in Mediterranean and in both side of Atlantic	Biofouling of ships and port installations. Shallow waters.	Turkmenian, and Azerbaijanian ports, Makhachkala. Many last years are not mentioned.	Atlas of Caspian Sea invertebrates, 1968

Comments

Taxonomy of all Ponto-Caspian species needs special revision (especially in the comparison of Caspian populations with the Black Sea ones using modern methods).
Besides anthropogenous migration of Caspian species upstream Volga (Hypania invalida) an opposite migration via Dnepr and Volga takes shape. From these species Hypania antiqua (Ostroumoff, 1896) just reached the Caspian Sea, and Manayunkia danubialis Bačescu, 1948 is not far from lower Volga.
Ficopomatus enigmaticus was not found in the Caspian Sea during last years. But it is early to consider it to be disappeared. This "tenacious" species more than once disappeared from some parts of the Black Sea, but appeared in others.
Mention about Nereis (Neanthes) succinea as specially introduced into the Caspian Sea is based on errors (see: Khlebovich, 1963; Khlebovich, Komendantov, 2002).

References

Annenkova N.P. 1930. The fresh-water and brackish-water Polychaetea of the USSR // In: Key to determination of fresh-water organisms of the USSR. A. Fresh–water fauna. Part 2. P. 48 p.

Karpinsky M.G. 2002. Ecology of the benthos of the Middle and Southern Caspian. Ed. by VNIRO. 283 p.

Khlebovich V.V. 1963. On the systematic position of the Caspian Nereid // Zool. Zhurn. V. 42. ¹ 1. P. 129-130.

Khlebovich V.V. 1996.Polychaetes of the family Nereididae of the Russian seas and adjacent waters. Fauna of Russia. Polychaetous annelids. Vol. III. Nauka.223 p.

Khlebovich V.V., Komendantov A.Yu. On the temporary variation of the patagnath formula in Hediste diversicolor // Zool. Zhurn. V. 81, ¹ 4.