The Arenicolidce. of South Africa. 3 



the figure of the worm, this species differs from a large example of 

 J. n/iirina only in the presence of a chaetigerous ring between the 

 last branchial segment and the caudal region. This chaetigerous 

 ring is shown bearing, on each side, a tuft of setae but no notopodial 

 elevation. Fauvel remarked that such a character in an Areuicola 

 is so extraordinary that one might ask if there had not been an 

 error of observation. In view of the insufficient information regard- 

 ing this species he concluded that it was impossible to decide 

 whether A. loveni is a distinct species or should be merged with 

 A. marina* Gamble and Ashworth t placed this among the species 

 of Arenicola, which, being so shortly and insufficiently described, 

 must for all practical purposes be ignored. 



The above account, which embodies the whole of the information 

 hitherto available regarding A. loveni, I shows that the validity of this 

 species and its position with reference to other species of the genus 

 have been regarded as very uncertain. 



OCCURRENCE. 



Up to the present Kinberg's specimen, obtained at Port Natal, 

 near Durban, is the only recorded example of A. loveni, and no 

 details are given of the conditions under which it was found. The 

 only information available on the habitat of this species is contained 

 in a letter (dated July 7, 1909), which Professor Gilchrist sent to me 

 with the specimens, and from which I quote the following : " I had 

 been looking for several years for Arenicola here" (i.e., on the shores 

 of Cape Colony), " but found no trace of it until on a visit to Saldanha 

 Bay, on the west coast, I found the castings of the worm in a little 

 sandy cove just inside the bay. Most of the sand here is very 

 shifty, but in this sheltered place it seemed to be more permanent 



* J. E. Ives (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc., Philadelphia, for 1890, p. 74, Philadelphia, 

 1891) apparently considers A. loccni Kbg. to be a synonym of A. marina, for in 

 stating the range of distribution of A. marina he includes South Africa. The only 

 records of Arenicola from South Africa are those of Kinberg (A. loveni) and von 

 Marenzeller (A. marina, from Angra Pequena), so that Ives' statement implies that 

 he considers Kinberg's specimen to be an example of A. marina. It may be men- 

 tioned here that the specimens collected by Professor Gilchrist at Angra Pequena 

 (for an account of which see pp. 18-21) have enabled me to show that the species 

 found there is not A. marina but A. assimilis var. ajfinis. 



f Gamble, F. W., and Ashicorth, J. H., " The Anatomy and Classification of the 

 Arenicolidee . . ." in Quart. Journ. Micr. Sc., vol. 43, p. 429, 1900. 



I Since this was written the author has published an account of the type 

 specimen and of the examples from Saldanha Bay, similar to that on pp. 2-15 of 

 this communication, in Arkiv for Zoologi (K. Svenska Vetensk-Akad. Stockholm), 

 Bd. 7, No. 5, 19pp., 1 PL, 1910. 



