Type species: Flabelligera induta Ehlers, 1897.
Diagnosis. Body tapering towards both ends, fusiform. Tunic thick, becoming thicker ventrally. Cephalic cage chaetae long, mostly covered by fine papillae. Body papillae long, becoming longer in parapodial lobes. Notopodia and neuropodia ventrolateral. Notochaetae long, multiarticulated capillaries with short articles, visible distally; neurohooks mostly single per ramus, multiarticulated, crest entire. Free living.
Etymology. This genus name includes the first few letters in Flabelligera, and the last name of Ernst Ehlers. He was an excellent polychaete taxonomist who not only made fine descriptions but also was an excellent artist. Further, his publications on Antarctic fauna are classic and in one of them, he described the type species for the genus. Gender is feminine.
Remarks. Flabehlersia n. g. is similar to Flabelligera because in both the body papillae are completely covered by the tunic, notochaetae are shorter than or as long as the body width, and the crests of neurohooks are thick and entire. These genera differ in the general body shape, the relative development of the anterior end, and parapodial position. Thus, in Flabehlersia the body is fusiform, the anterior end markedly tapers to a long, thin cone, and parapodia are displaced ventrally, whereas in Flabelligera the body is truncate anteriorly, tapers posteriorly, and all parapodia are lateral.
Flabehlersia includes Flabelligera induta (Ehlers, 1897) n. comb. and F. persimilis (Annenkova-Chlopina 1924) n. comb. The diagnostic features for the species are included in the key below.
Distribution. The genus is bipolar because one species occurs in the Arctic Ocean and the other one in the Antarctic Ocean.