Genus Gesa s chroederella nomen nov.

Schroederella Laubier, 1962, junior homonym of Schroederella Enderlein, 1921.

Type-species: Schroederella paulini Laubier, 1962.

Diagnosis. (Emended) Prostomium elongate, pointed; eyespots present or absent; peristomium with two rings, variously developed; body regions separated into thorax and abdomen; branchiae present from abdominal segments; all parapodia with camerated capillaries; acicular spines or uncini present in thoracic neuropodia; pygidium with dorsal anus and 2–4 anal cirri.

Etymology. Gesaschroederella is formed by adding the first name to the surname of Dr. Gesa Hartmann- Schr̂der, for whom the late Dr. Lucien Laubier originally named the genus.

Remarks. As reported in this study, juveniles of several species of Leitoscoloplos and Scoloplos have been found with characteristics of Schroederella as defined by Laubier (1962, 1971), here renamed Gesaschroederella nomen nov. The use of fine-mesh sieves permits the collection of juvenile orbiniids that were previously not available from surveys of benthic invertebrates. Both G. paulini and G. laubieri should be compared with local species of Scoloplos from South Africa and the Mediterranean Sea to explore the possibility that they are also juveniles of larger orbiniids.

Apart from being small and meiofaunal in habitat, there is nothing morphologically in the above definition except the presence of two peristomial rings that separates the two remaining species of Gesaschroederella from species of Scoloplos.