Psamathini Explained

Psamathini are a tribe of phyllodocid "bristle worms" (class Polychaeta) in the family Hesionidae. They are (like almost all polychaetes) marine organisms; most are found on the continental shelf, but some have adapted to greater depths down to the abyssal plain.^[1]

Their dorsal cirri alternate, and they usually lack facial tubercles. Most have prolonged teeth on the chaetal blades. 5 genera are placed in the Psamathini with certainty, and three further ones are often included here too in recent times, to make this tribe refer to a distinct clade of polychaetes:^[2]

• Bonuania Pillai, 1965 (tentatively placed here)
• Hesiospina Imajima & Hartman, 1964
• Micropodarke Okuda, 1938 (tentatively placed here)
• Nereimyra Blainville, 1828 (= Halimede Rathke 1843 (non de Haan, [1835]: preoccupied), Psammate)
• Psamathe Johnston, 1840 (= Kefersteinia)
• Sirsoe Pleijel, 1998 (tentatively placed here)
• Syllidia Quatrefages, 1866
• Vrijenhoekia Pleijel, Rouse, Ruta, Wiklund & Nygren, 2008

References

• (2008): Vrijenhoekia balaenophila, a new hesionid polychaete from a whale fall off California. Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 152(4): 625–634. (HTML abstract)
• (2008): Psamathini. Version of 2008-MAR-26. Retrieved 2009-FEB-23.

Notes and References

1. Pleijel et al. (2008)
2. Pleijel et al. (2008), WoRMS (2008)