LEODICID/E OF THE WEST INDIAN REGION. 25 



On account of the toughness of the sponge tissue and the intricate windings of the tubes 

 it is difficult to get entire specimens. The species was also common in collections made 

 in Bermuda in 1916, though here I found it most often in the characteristic tubes on 

 the under sides of stones. All of those collected in Bermuda were smaller than most of 

 those from the Dry Tortugas, indicating possibly a varietal difference, but I was unable 

 to discover any other essential differences between the two. 



Ehlers's specimens were collected at Key West and at 24 44' N. and 83 26' W. 

 The U. S. National Museum has specimens collected in Key West and Rodregas Creek, 

 Florida; Curacao; Old Providence, West Indies; St. Thomas, Virgin Islands; off 

 Cape San Antonio, Cuba; and in Dominica. The American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory has a specimen collected at Guayanilla Harbor, Porto Rico, and I have found it 

 in the Dry Tortugas, in Bermuda, in Tobago, and at Guanica Harbor, Porto Rico. 



Verrill considers this species identical with Mclntosh's Eunice cirrobranchiaia and 

 I have so included it, though w r ith some doubt. Mclntosh's specimen was only a single 

 fragment, which he records had evidently been dried. His description agrees fairly well 

 with my specimens in the character of the head and setae, but disagrees in the number 

 of teeth in the maxillae. 



Leodice spongicola, new species. 



(Text-figures 53a to 53j.*) 



A rather small species measuring, after preservation, about 75 mm. in length with 

 a diameter of 2 mm. In life it is much shorter and broader than this, the change fol- 

 lowing the action of the preserving fluids. 



In the living animal the anterior region is light green in color with a marked 

 iridescence. This green fades out gradually in successive somites behind the anterior 

 region, becoming at first a yellowish brown, but eventually disappearing entirely, so 

 that the only color in the posterior end is due to the contained blood. In alcohol the 

 green turns to a dingy gray. 



The prostomium (text-figure 53o) is deeply bilobed and has a considerable dorso- 

 ventral diameter. The peristomium seen from the dorsal surface is nearly rectangular 

 in outline and has prominent anteroventral lips. The tentacles are about twice as long 

 as the prostomium and taper gently to their ends. An unusually wide space separates 

 the bases of the median and the inner paired tentacles. The inner paired have a small 

 basal joint; that of the outer paired is larger and is situated close to the anterior margin 

 of the inner. The eyes lie between the bases of the inner and outer paired tentacles. 



Somite 2 is less than half as long as somite 1 and the slender nuchal cirri are only a 

 little longer than the somite. 



The gills appear at about somite 27, at first as very small structures, but they rap- 

 idly increase in size and throughout the greater part of the body they are longer than 

 the diameter of the body in its preserved condition (text-figure 536). At first each gill 

 has 1 branch, but by somite 34 this becomes 2 branched, and a few somites farther back 

 it has 3 branches. While there may be exceptions in individual somites, 3 is the usual 

 number to the very last gill, which is on the fourth somite in front of the pygidium. 

 There is one pair of large anal cirri. 



The tenth parapodium (text-figure 53c) has a rounded post-setal lobe and a single 

 large acicula. The dorsal cirrus is slender and relatively long and has a tuft of needle 

 aciculse. The ventral cirrus is oval in outline, rather small, and is carried on the end of 

 a pad-like swelling. There is a considerable tuft of compound seta?, with a smaller 

 number of simple and pectinate ones. A parapodium from the region of somite 70 is 



*This species was collected in July 1921, after the printing part of this paper was well advanced. Hence 

 the interpolation of these numbers. 



