spionid polychaete Spiophanes tcherniai

Spiophanes tcherniai is found in Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula, South Shetland Islands, South Orkney Islands, and Kerguelen Island from intertidal to 851 meters depth [1,2,4,5,10]. S. tcherniai can be up to four centimeters long with a width up to 0.7 centimeters, with the number of body segments over 90 [2,4,10]. S. tcherniai is a dominant species in the McMurdo jetty soft-bottom macrofaunal community, with a measured 3,584 individuals per square meter [7]. Below 100 meters in Terra Nova Bay, S. tcherniai is a dominant species, with a measured 3,000 individuals per square meter [8,9]. S. tcherniai is a suspension feeder, living in a mucus-lined tube and extending its prehensile, long palps from the tube to gather food particles [6,7]. A study examined the gut contents of S. tcherniai and found diatoms, amorphous organic material, and gelatinous egg masses [7]. Its predators include the anemone Edwardsia meridionalis and the fish Trematomus bernacchii and Trematomus hansoni [7].

Antarctic polychaetes have a much higher percentage of unique species than polychaete faunas in other parts of the world [3].

1: Polychaeta Myzostomidae and Sedentaria of Antarctica. O Hartman. Antarctic Research Series Volume 7. Washington DC : American Geophysical Union of the National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council, 1966; 2: 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, 1967; 3: Adaptations within Antarctic Ecosystems, Proceedings of the Third SCAR Symposium on Antarctic Biology. GA Llano, ed. Washington, DC : Smithsonian Institution, 1977. pp.1111-1127; 4: Marine Fauna of the Ross Sea : Polychaeta. GA Knox & DB Cameron. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Biodiversity Memoir 108. Wellington, New Zealand : NIWA, 1998; 5: United States National Museum Polar Invertebrate Catalog at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/iz/usap/usapdb.html; 6: Marine Invertebrates of Southern Australia, Part 1. SA Shepherd & IM Thomas. Adelaide, South Australia: DJ Woolman Government Printer, 1982; 7: Ophelia 24(3):155-175, 1985; 8: Scientia Marina 63(Supplement 1):113- 121, 1999; 9: Ross Sea Ecology : Italiantartide Expeditions (1987-1995). FM Faranda, L Guglielmo, A Ianora, eds. Berlin : Springer, 2000. pp. 551-561; 10: Marine Fauna of the Ross Sea: Polychaeta. GA Knox & DB Cameron. Wellington : National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, 1998. NIWA Biodiversity Memoir 108

Text ©Peter Brueggeman. Photograph ©Canadian Museum of Nature (Kathleen Conlan). Photograph may not be used in any form without the express written permission of Canadian Museum of Nature (Kathleen Conlan).