Polar Biol (1997) 17: 285—295  Springer-Verlag 1997 ORIGINAL PAPER Guillermo San Martı´ n · Julio Parapar ‘‘Errant’’ polychaetes of the Livingston Island shelf (South Shetlands, Antarctica), with the description of a new species Received: 29 February 1996/Accepted: 2 June 1996 Abstract The Spanish cruise ‘‘Bentart 94’’ was the first of two devoted to the study of the benthic marine fauna off Livingston and Deception Islands, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. In this paper, the taxonomic results of the examination of the ‘‘errant’’ families of the poly- chaetes collected during that cruise are presented. A total of 834 specimens have been examined, belong- ing to 34 species of 31 genera and 11 families. A new species, Micronereis anaramosae, is described, and Eu- syllis kerguelensis McIntosh is referred to the genus Pionosyllis. The specimens were found in 109 samples of muddy sand, mud, stones, rocks, gravel, and mixed sediments, by scuba diving, Van Veen grab, rock trawl and anchor dredge. Introduction ‘‘Bentart 94’’ was the first Spanish cruise of two devoted to the study of the benthic marine biota of the South Shetland Islands. That cruise was carried out during February 1994; the aim of ‘‘Bentart 94’’ was to collect material for taxonomic study, knowledge of the area, and prepare for the next cruise, ‘‘Bentart 95’’, with an ecological address. Numerous samples (109) were col- lected for the study of several groups, among them the polychaetous annelids. In this paper, we present the taxonomic results of the study of several families of these worms (‘‘Errant’’ families) of the cruise ‘‘Bentart G. San Martı´n ( ) Departamento de Biologı´a, Unidad de Zoologı´a, Laboratorio de Biologı´a Marina e Invertebrados, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Auto´noma de Madrid, Canto Blanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain fax: 91 3978344; e-mail: GSMP@ccuam3.sdi.uam.es J. Parapar Departamento de Bioloxı´a Animal e Bioloxı´a Vexetal, Facultade de Ciencias (Bioloxı´a), Universidade da Corun  a, Campus da Zapateira, 15071 A Corun  a, Spain 94’’; 34 species are reported, mostly well-known species, which are not described, but only reported. Eusyllis kerguelensis is referred to the genus Pionosyllis, and a new species is described, Micronereis anaramosae. The results for the remaining families will be published in another paper. The polychaete fauna of the South Shetland Islands has already been studied by several authors; recently, Hartmann-Schro¨der (1986), Hart- mann-Schro¨der and Rosenfeldt (1988, 1990, 1992) and Sicinski and Janowska (1993) have made detailed re- ports on the polychaetes of that area. Materials and methods The study area of ‘‘Bentart 94’’ includes the three bays at the south of Livingston Island, South Shetlands, Antarctica. Location of the study area and sampling sites are presented in Figs. 1 and 2. The several sampling gear or methods, collection dates, locations, depths, and substrate types are described in Table 1. The depth range of samples varies between 4 and 440 m. The specimens were fixed in formalin, and transfered to 70% ethanol after study; they are deposited in the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales de Madrid (MNCNM), Spain. The family Phyllo- docidae has been treated following the systematic proposed by Pleijel (1991). Results Family Aphroditidae Malmgren, 1867 Genus ¸aetmonice Kinberg, 1855 ¸aetmonice producta producta Grube, 1876 ¸aetmonice producta (McIntosh 1885, p. 39, pl. 4A, Figs. 1—8; Hartman 1964, p. 12, pl. 1, Fig. 3; Hutchings and McRae 1993, p. 333, Figs. 45, 46) ¸aetmonice producta producta (Hartmann-Schro¨der and Rosenfeldt (1992), p. 88)