Serpulidae (Annelida: Polychaeta) from the Suez Canal: from a Lessepsian migration perspective (a monograph).

Data on Serpulidae collected in the Suez Canal were assembled and analyzed. Five serpulid taxa are reported from the canal for the first time bringing the number of serpulids to at least 16. The Systematic Section compiles revised literature records, confirmed synonymies of the taxa, redescriptions where necessary, photographic studies of taxa and remarks on the populations studied. The possible Indo-West-Pacific or Mediterranean origins of the taxa in the Suez Canal are considered and their chronological records and distributions tracked within the Red Sea, the Gulfs of Aqaba and Suez, the Suez Canal and the Levant Basin based on the compiled literature and our extensive databases. Two Lessepsian migrants, Hydroides heterocerus and H. homoceros, show evidence of morphological variability along their migration route; the last also provides an example of a founder effect. Problems of identifying Protula and Salmacina taxa are addressed, along with remarks on the "cosmopolitan" designations of some taxa. Various hypotheses concerning Lessepsian migration are discussed, and attributes making Lessepsian migrant serpulid tubeworms successful invasive species are evaluated

On the identity of Hydroides priscus Pillai 1971 - Taxonomic confusion due to ontogeny in some serpulid genera (Annelida: Polychaeta: Serpulidae)

We introduce the concept 'bioperculate chimaera' for an ontogenetic stage in the genus Hydroides having two different two-tier opercula, one a small operculum with simple (un-differentiated) spines - an H. 'priscus'-type - present on the opposite branchial lobe from an operculum characteristic of Hydroides cf. albiceps, or H. cf. brachyacanthus, or H. diramphus, H. homoceros, H. minax, H. trivesiculosus, or as of yet undiscovered additional taxa. An additional and presumably more advanced bioperculate chimaera stage has been found in Hydroides cf. albiceps. Documentation is provided of the 'new', immature, two-tier opercular stage and of these different chimaeras; their biogeographic affinities are discussed. Some concepts of Hydroides opercular ontogeny and function are reviewed, with remarks on taxono-mic errors deriving from unawareness of variability within populations