Meeting Abstract
Palolo worms (Palola, Eunicidae, Annelida) are well known for their mass spawnings or “risings” which occur at very predictable times, once or twice a year, throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific. These events have great cultural significance in many locations, as the swarming epitokes are commonly harvested for food as part of community celebrations. Palolo festivities have captured the attention of visiting naturalists for centuries, resulting in detailed accounts and providing extensive datasets for analyzing temporal and geographical patterns of reproductive behavior. Palola viridis, originally described from swarming epitokes in Samoa, is a widely reported species in the genus. Palola siciliensis was originally described from Sicily but has a reported pantropical distribution. Although epitoky has been described for P. siciliensis as well, it appears that most populations do not exhibit mass spawning. Most of the remaining Palola species are only known from their type localities. However, many reported species identifications may be erroneous because morphologically diagnostic characters are few. On the other hand, genetic diversity in the genus is remarkably high, both within and among localities. Phylogenetic analyses indicate multiple genetic lineages which can be roughly separated into two groups: one of which exhibits epitoky and mass spawning and one that does not. Some genetic clades are geographically widespread whereas others are localized. Here we review and analyze historical records of reproductive timing as well as the genetic diversity within the genus in an attempt to characterize species ranges within Palola.
