NEW RECORDS OF RARE AND POORLY KNOWN POLYCHAETES IN ITALIAN SEAS

Even though the Mediterranean Sea is one of the best known marine ecoregion in the world, the diversity and distribution of several groups of marine invertebrates, including polychaetous annelids, are still far from being completed. In the context of a revision of the Italian checklist, the latest version of which is updated to 2005, we provide new data, mainly based on environmental monitoring activities and revision of historical material, for 39 native polychaete species in Italian waters. Out of these species, Myriochele danielsseni represents the first record in the Mediterranean Sea, while other 11 species (Aricidea katzmanni, Cirrophorus turcicus, Harmothoe gilchristi, Levinsenia demiri, Levinsenia kantauriensis, Levinsenia kosswigi, Levinsenia materi, Marphysa cinari, Paradoneis heterochaeta, Phyllodoce longipes, and Prionospio maciolekae) are recorded for the first time in Italian waters. These data, together with recent taxonomic revisions in the region, highlight how, despite previous efforts, the diversity of polychaetes in the Mediterranean Sea is still partially unexplored, and stress the need for further detailed studies on this group.