Flotidae

Flotidae is a family of pelagic polychaete worms, sometimes synonymized with Flabelligeridae, which they closely resemble. Other sources consider them the sister taxon to Flabelligeridae and closely allied to the latter group.^[1][2]

Flotidae
Buskiella abyssorum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Annelida
Clade:	Pleistoannelida
Clade:	Sedentaria
Order:	Terebellida
Family:	Flotidae Buzhinskaja, 1996
Genera
Buskiella Flota ?

Taxonomy

Flotidae originally contained one genus, Flota, from which it derives its name, but a 2007 study also placed Buskiella in the family, and moved all (two) Flota species to Buskiella.^[3][4][1] The family would thus contains one genus and three species, listed below.

• Buskiella abyssorum McIntoch, 1885
• Buskiella flabelligera (Hartman, 1967) formerly Flota flabelligera
• Buskiella vitjasi (Buzhinskaja, 1977) formerly Flota vitjasi

Similarities and differences with Flabelligeridae

A 2008 paper analyzing the phylogenetics of flotid polychaetes found that flotids are nested within Flabelligeridae.^[1] However, defenders of the separate family status of Flotidae cite several morphological differences.^[5]