Family COSSURIDAE

Cossura bansei

© Copyright Greg Rouse

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Introduction

Cossurids are small thread-like worms with numerous segments. They have a blunt head without appendages and a single long branchial filament placed dorsally on an anterior segment. They occur from shallow intertidal depths to the deep sea, favouring sandy mud sediments. It is likely that cossurids are deposit feeders.

There are no described species of Cossura from Australia. About 4 species of Cossura have been collected from from benthic surveys in south-eastern Australia, but they have not yet been studied systematically. The only published records from Australia are also incompletely identified: Cossura sp. from Port Phillip Bay, Victoria (Poore et al. 1975) and Cossura sp. from the Hawkesbury River, New South Wales (Hutchings & Murray 1984).

Figures of 1 genus and 4 species were given by Beesley et al. (2000: App. 1) for representation of the family in Australian waters, and 2 genera and ~25 species worldwide.

See Hutchings (2000) for detailed family treatment.

Database Notes

proof read against Day & Hutchings 1979 by RW
checked against DELTA CD 2003 by RTJ

Diagnosis

General features. Body shape vermiform; segments numerous (more than about 15); regionation absent. Pygidium simple ring or cone. Pygidial appendages present; three cirri.
Head & head structures. Head discrete and compact, dorsal to mouth. Prostomium bluntly conical to trapezoidal (narrow end anteriorly). Eyes absent. Oral filaments present (very small, not easily seen); arise inside mouth (can be exposed by retraction of lower lip). Palps absent. Nuchal organs indistinct paired dorsolateral patches. Peristomial ring single.
Pharynx & pharyngeal apparatus. Foregut without a distinct ventral or axial organ.
Body segments & parapodia. First segment chaetigerous. First chaetiger with notochaetae only, or with neurochaetae only. Parapodia biramous with parapodial lobes absent or low (rami very close together); notopodial lobes represented by at least one chaetal lobe; neuropodial lobes represented by at least one chaetal lobe. Dorsal cirri absent. Ventral cirri absent. Branchiae present (single long filament); arise from dorsum; occur on at least some chaetigerous segments (arising from middle of a single anterior chaetiger); filiform.
Chaetae. Notochaetae present. Aciculae absent. Capillary chaetae hair-like; smooth, or hirsute-serrate. Spines absent, or present in most or all chaetigers; in both notopodia and neuropodia; slightly curved and more-or-less smooth. Hooks absent.
Tube & burrow. Tube absent or unconsolidated. Burrow traces absent.

The above description was generated from: 'C.J. Glasby & K. Fauchald (2002 onwards). POLiKEY. An information system for polychaete families and higher taxa: Version 1: September 2002.'
(See ABRS website: Online Resources: Polikey, for Version 2, released June 2003)

General References

Beesley, P.L., Ross, G.J.B. & Glasby, C.J. (eds) 2000. Polychaetes & Allies: The Southern Synthesis. Fauna of Australia Vol. 4A Polychaeta, Myzostomida, Pogonophora, Echiura, Sipuncula. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing Vol. 4 Part A xii 1-465 pp.

Ewing, R.M. 1987. Review of the genus Cossurella (Polychaeta: Cossuridae) including descriptions of two new species and a key to the species of the world. Bulletin of the Biological Society of Washington 7: 3-10

Fauchald, K. & Rouse, G. 1997. Polychaete systematics: Past and present. Zoologica Scripta 26: 71-138

Fournier, J.A. & Petersen, M.E. 1991. Cossura longocirrata: Redescription and distribution, with notes on reproductive biology and a comparison of described species of Cossura (Polychaeta: Cossuridae). pp. 63-80 in Petersen, M.E. & Kirkegaard, J.B. Systematics, Biology and Morphology of World Polychaeta. Proceedings of the Second International Polychaete Conference, Copenhagen, August 18–23, 1986. Ophelia Supplément 5: 723

Hutchings, P.A. 2000. Family Cossuridae. pp. 72-74 in Beesley, P.L., Ross, G.J.B. & Glasby, C.J. (eds). Polychaetes & Allies: The Southern Synthesis. Fauna of Australia Vol. 4A Polychaeta, Myzostomida, Pogonophora, Echiura, Sipuncula. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing Vol. 4 Part A xii 1-465 pp.

Jones, M.L. 1956. Cossura pygodactylata, a new annelid from San Francisco Bay (Polychaeta: Cirratulidae). Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 46: 127-130

Laubier, L. 1963. Découverte du genre Cossura (Polychète, Cossuridae) en Méditerranée: Cossura soyeri sp. n. Vie et Milieu 14: 833-842

Petersen, M.E. 1991. A review of asexual reproduction in the Cirratulidae (Annelida: Polychaeta), with redescription of Cirratulus gayheadius (Hartman, 1965), new combination and emendation or reinstatement of some cirratulid genera. p. 592 (abstract only) in Reish, D.J. Third International Polychaete Conference held at California State University, Long Beach California August 6–11, 1989. Bulletin of Marine Science 48: 177-596

Tzetlin, A.B. 1994. Fine morphology of the feeding apparatus of Cossura sp. (Polychaeta, Cossuridae) from the White Sea. pp. 137-143 in Dauvin, J.-C., Laubier, L. & Reish, D.J. Actes de la 4ème Conférence internationale des Polychètes. Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris [1936-1950] 162: 642

Uschakov, P.V. 1955. Polychaeta from the Far-Eastern Seas of the USSR. Moscow : Akademiya NAUK SSS pp. 1-443. [translated from Russian by the Israel Program for Scientific Translations, Jerusalem 1965]

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