Three new deep-sea species of Sphaerodoridae (Annelida,Polychaeta) from the eastern tropical South Pacific*

Three sphaerodorid species new to science are described from a manganese nodule area in abyssal depths of around 4150 m in the Peru Basin in the eastern South Pacific. Sphaerodoridium campanulata sp. n. is isolated within the genus, having, apart from spherical macrotubercles, additional dorsal stalked bell-shaped papillae, not previously described. Sphaerodoropsis discolis sp. n. is a species with four rows of dorsal macrotubercles and two pairs of lateral antennae. Sphaerodoropsis translucida sp. n. has six to seven rows of dorsal macrotubercles arrayed in two transverse rows per segment and two pairs of lateral antennae. A brief discussion points to the close relationship between Clavodorum and Sphaerodoridium, and to the present state of Sphaerodoropsis, being inhomogeneous in the characters of the arrangement of the dorsal macrotubercles and the numbers of the lateral antennae. An overview on the latter genus, with an attempt to subdivide it, is given.