LEODICID^E OF THE WEST INDIAN BEGION. 43 



Leodice fucata Ehlers. 



(Plate 4, figures 5 to 10; text-figures 127 to 135.) 



Eunice fucata Ehlers, 1887, p. 91, plate 25, figures 1-20. 



Eunice fucata Treadwell, 1901, p. 196. 



Staurocephalus gregaricus Mayer, 1900, p. 1, plate 1, figures 1-9; plate 2, figures 10-17; plate 3, figures 18-27. 



The Atlantic Palolo (Eunice fucata), Mayer, 1902, p. 93, with,! plate. 



A large, though rather slender, species; one female approaching maturity had a 

 body-length of 673 mm. and was composed of over 500 somites. 



In the living animal the anterior face of the prostomium is a pale green and very 

 iridescent (plate 4, figure 5), while between the bases of the tentacles it has a pearly 

 luster. The cirrophores of the tentacles are a reddish brown, while the greater part 

 of the tentacles are a lighter brown washed with green but with colorless apices. The 

 nuchal cirri are a very light green, darker for the terminal quarter but with apices 

 uncolored, and the dorsal cirri for about the first 20 somites are colored like these, while 

 later ones are uncolored. The peristomium (plate 4, figures 5 and 6) is very iridescent, 

 but with more or less brown and green, and this condition is continued on to later 

 somites, so that the general effect is that of a decidedly green animal. As far back as 

 about somite 40 there is a faint transverse white band in each somite. At this point a 

 white spot appears in the mid-dorsal line, at first of only an occasional somite, but later 

 is present in all and persists to the extreme posterior end of the body, while the band 

 disappears. In mature animals there is a sharp line between the sexual and non-sexual 

 regions (plate 4, figure 5), the sex region of the male being a bright coral-pink and the 

 female a sage-green (plate 4, figure 10). These colors are due to the sex products seen 

 through the body-wall (plate 4, figure 8). The extreme posterior end is free from sex 

 products and is wine-red in color (plate 4, figure 9). The ventral surface is like the 

 corresponding dorsal, but lighter. Immature individuals have almost the same color 

 as adults. 



The prostomium (plate 4, figure 6) is rounded and distinctly bilobed, each lobe 

 being further divided into a small dorsal and a larger ventral one. The tentacles all 

 taper gently to a bluntly rounded apex, the median one being the longest and reaching 

 to the fourth somite. The inner paired tentacles are a very little longer than the outer 

 and reach to the third somite. The eyes are large and black. 



The peristomium is colored as described above. In living material its anterio- 

 posterior diameter is usually longer than the transverse, but this varies in life and in 

 the one drawn its outline was nearly square. The second somite is very short, its nuchal 

 cirri reaching to the anterior border of the peristomium (plate 4, figure 6). Later dorsal 

 cirri are similar to the nuchal, and they are prominent throughout the body, though 

 smaller posteriorly than anteriorly. There is one pair of rather small anal cirri (plate 

 4, figure 9). Throughout most of the body the somites are broader than long and the 

 intersegmental constrictions figured by Ehlers are not present in living specimens. 



The first parapodium (text-figure 127) has a small setal portion with large dorsal and 

 ventral cirri. There are two aciculse in the setal portion and relatively very large needle 

 aciculse in the dorsal cirrus. The tenth parapodium (text-figure 128) has practically 

 equal lips with a setal elevation between and protruding aciculse. The dorsal cirrus is 

 rather large and carries the broad gill near its base. The ventral cirrus is hardly longer 

 than the parapodium, is very thick and fleshy, and has a broad base of attachment. 

 The two-hundredth parapodium (text-figure 129) shows a pointed posterior lip and 

 dorsal and ventral aciculse. The dorsal cirrus is relatively smaller and the ventral ones 

 relatively larger than anteriorly, and the dorsal cirrus carries a very small gill. Needle 

 aciculae occur at the bases of all dorsal cirri. 



