186 ' ENDEAVOUR " SCIENTIFIC RESULTS. 



A translation of Ehlers' diagnosis is: "Polynoinae with 20 

 pairs of leathery, rugged elytra covering the back; three 

 tentacles with large basal joints at the anterior margin of the 

 prostomium ; a niu-hal caruncle ; chaetae between the peri- 

 stomial cirri ; finely denticulated dorsal capillary chaete on 

 a short dorsal foot-lobe, and stout chaste with serrate frills 

 in the ventral lobe ; with bladder-like evaginations around 

 the base of the cirro- and elytro-phores." 



Previous to Ehlers' memoir, Moore 1 , in 1903, had described 

 two species of Lcpidonotus from the coastal slope of Japan, 

 viz., L. cititonijormis (p. 405) and L. branchiferus (p. 409), 

 which clearly belong to this same genus. He pointed out 

 their " evident relationship to L. giganteus, Kirk, from New 

 Zealand," and suggested that the three species " might very 

 properly be segregated as a distinct generic group." 2 



Amongst the material from the " Endeavour " dredgings 

 I find four new species of this remarkable branchiate genus, 

 and am therefore able to add one or two characters to the 

 diagnosis of Ehlers and to delete two. 



In the first place he includes the presence of chaete on the 

 peristomium ; but these Bourne 3 long ago showed to occur 

 in the genus Le-pidonotus, and other early authors have 

 recorded them. 



The " Nackencarunkel " is also attributed to the genus ; 

 but in this I fancy Ehlers was misled by Thomson's figure of 

 the head (PI. 51, fig. 4) where he shows the first of the series 

 of dorsal tubercles or elytron supports, labelled "d.t.l," and 

 which he explains as " the first dorsal tubercle in the 

 respiratory channel/' It overlaps the base of the prostomium, 

 but is not analogous with the " caruncle " of Amphinomids. 



Additional characters are as follows : 



(1.) All the species agree in having the elytra attached by 

 a long, narrow oval cartilagiiioid tissue in the elytrophore, 

 which is set transversely to the body axis in line with the 

 foot, and leaves a very distinct, long oval scar on the elytron ; 

 whereas in all other species of Polynomae and Aphroditinae, 

 so far as the figures inform me, the elytrophore and its scar 

 is a more or less circular thing ; but in I-phiojie muricata, 

 Savigny shows (PI. iii., fig. 1) them as oval. 



1. lLouiv 1'roc. Aciid. .Nat. iSci. Philadelphia,, 19U3, p. 401. 



2. He notes, too, that " L. branchiata, Tread well (Bull. U.S. Fish. 

 Comm., xx., 1903, p. 18(i), from Porto Rico, possesses similar branchiae, 

 but the seta> and elytra are different." 



3. Bourne- Trans. Linn. Soc., Zool., ii., 1883, p. 347. 



