During the Antarctic summers of 2002–2003 and of 2005–2006, the Spanish BENTART cruises were conducted to the Bellingshausen Sea (west Antarctica) aiming to get a complete picture of the benthic communities of the area. To achieve it, 30 stations were selected, from depths ranging from 100 to 2000 m. In order to characterize the infaunal, epifaunal and suprabenthic components of the communities various different sampling gears were used at each station. As a part of the obtained material, some spionid individuals were identified as belonging to a species never before recorded from the Austral Ocean, Aonidella cirrobranchiata.
