nephtyid polychaete Aglaophamus trissophyllus

Aglaophamus trissophyllus is found in Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula, South Shetland Islands, South Sandwich Islands, South Georgia Island, Falkland Islands, and Kerguelen Island from 6 to 1,400 meters depth [1,3,4,5,6,8,9]. A. trissophyllus is up to twenty centimeters long, up to seven millimeters wide, with up to 200 segments [1,8]. Growth of A. trissophyllus is very slow and longevity explains its gigantism; its life span is three to seven times longer than taxonomically related species from temperate areas [6]. A. trissophyllus can be flesh- colored to dark purple to nearly black, or pale with a purplish brown midventral stripe [1,8].

Aglaophamus trissophyllus digs into the substrate and is a herbivore; its gut contents have been found to be plant debris and diatoms [6]. A. trissophyllus has been found in the stomach contents of the fish Trematomus pennellii and Trematomus bernacchii [10,11].

Nephtyid polychaetes dig with their pharynx and are commonly found in muddy sand, although some species live in clean sand; they are carnivores or selective omnivores [7]. Antarctic polychaetes have a much higher percentage of unique species than polychaete faunas in other parts of the world [2].

Taxonomic Note: Aglaophamus ornatus is a synonym for Aglaophamus trissophyllus [8].

1: Polychaetous Annelids Collected by the USNS Eltanin and Staten Island Cruises, Chiefly from Antarctic Seas. O Hartman. Allan Hancock Monographs in Marine Biology Number 2. Los Angeles : Allan Hancock Foundation, University of Southern California, 1967; 2: Adaptations within Antarctic Ecosystems, Proceedings of the Third SCAR Symposium on Antarctic Biology. GA Llano, ed. Washington, DC : Smithsonian Institution, 1977. pp.1111-1127; 3: Peter Brueggeman, personal communication (collected by divers at Cape Armitage), 2000; 4: United States National Museum Polar Invertebrate Catalog at www.nmnh.si.edu/iz/usap/usapdb.html; 5: Antarctic Science 5(2):161-167, 1993; 6: Le Benthos du Plateau Continental des Iles Kerguelen, Resultats Scientifiques de la Campagne MD04/Benthos du "Marion Dufresne" et des Prospections de 1972 a 1975 de "La Japonaise". A Guille & J Soyer, eds. Comite National Francais des Recherches Antarctiques, CNFRA. Number 42, 1977. pp.135-172; 7: Marine Invertebrates of Southern Australia, Part 1. SA Shepherd & IM Thomas. Adelaide, South Australia: DJ Woolman Government Printer, 1982; 8: Marine Fauna of the Ross Sea: Polychaeta. GA Knox & DB Cameron. Wellington : National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, 1998. NIWA Biodiversity Memoir 108; 9: Tethys 6(3):631-653, 1974; 10: Ross Sea Ecology : Italiantartide Expeditions (1987-1995). FM Faranda, L Guglielmo, A Ianora, eds. Berlin : Springer, 2000. pp. 457-468; 11: Polar Biology 27(11):721-728, 2004

Text ©Peter Brueggeman. Photograph ©Peter Brueggeman. Photograph may not be used in any form without the express written permission of Peter Brueggeman.