LEODICID^E OF THE WEST INDIAN REGION. 73 



in immature individuals the terminal one of these may not be present. The right paired 

 plate has 7 teeth; the left has 2 large and 2 small ones; the unpaired has 6. In these 

 latter plates the margin is ordinarily smooth beyond the last tooth, but it may be notched 

 into denticulations. On either side is a smaller plate with its corner curved to form a 

 tooth-like edge, and there are crescentic patches distal to the plates. The mandible 

 (text-figure 256) has rather heavy shafts, light brown on the outer surfaces but darker 

 toward the inner. The beveled surface is covered with a whitish incrustation and there 

 is a small patch of colored chitin distal to this. 



Marphysa nobilis seems to be closely related to Marphysa californica (Moore, 1909, 

 p. 251, plates 7 and 8, figures 13 to 20). To Professor Moore's courtesy I am indebted 

 for the opportunity of examining a paratype of M . californica from the Museum of the 

 Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. This was about 45 mm. long, being thus 

 much smaller than any of the M. nobilis which I have seen. It differed from M. 

 nobilis in the flatter prostomium; in the fact that the gills begin on somite 19 instead of 

 29 and extend to much nearer the posterior end than in nobilis; in the gill-bearing somites 

 the dorsal and ventral cirri are much larger and the setal lobe more pointed than in 

 nobilis; the apex of the basal joint of the compound seta is not so sharply toothed and 

 the terminal portion is shorter than in nobilis; the anterior cirri are longer and more 

 slender; the body as a whole is much flatter. Moore's type was larger than the para- 

 type, being 80 mm. long, but this is much shorter than any M. nobilis I have found. 

 Some of these might be regarded as age differences, but the fact that in the smaller M. 

 californica the gills have a greater extent than in the larger M. nobilis would be directly 

 opposed to the idea that they are younger and older specimens of the same species. 



M. nobilis first appeared in my collecting at Mangrove Key in Key West Harbor 

 in 1915, and later in the same season a single specimen was collected at Long Key in 

 the Dry Tortugas. In 1918 several were collected at Buccoo Bay in Tobago. A single 

 specimen, now in the U. S. National Museum, was collected by the Fish Hawk at Garden 

 Key in the Dry Tortugas in 1912, and I found one specimen in Montego Bay, Jamaica. 



Marphysa languida, new species. 



(Text-figures 257 to 268.) 



One entire specimen and the posterior portion of another were collected in May 

 1915, in rocks off Guanica Harbor, Porto Rico. The general appearance and habitat 

 were much like those of Leodice caribcea (see p. 47), and they were at first taken for that 

 species. The entire specimen after preservation was approximately 60 mm. long with 

 a prostomial width of 1.5 mm. and about 200 somites. The living animal showed no 

 color except for the contained blood in its vessels, giving it a pinkish tinge. 



The prostomium (text-figure 257) is a little wider across its anterior than across 

 its posterior border, the halves broadly rounded, the median sulcus extending for as 

 much as two-thirds of the distance toward its posterior border. The tentacles are 

 colorless, sharply pointed at the apex, and closely ringed but not articulated, the outer 

 paired attached a little farther forward than the inner ones. The eyes are rather small, 

 dark brown in color, just in front of the bases of the inner paired tentacles. In the 

 living animal the peristomium is nearly twice as long at the margin as in the mid-dorsal 

 line and its anterior margin is concave. It is nearly as long as the following three 

 somites. The succeeding somites increase gradually in length and width as far back 

 as the fiftieth. In the preserved specimens most of the body somites are very short, 

 probably a contraction effect. There is a noticeable flattening of the body toward the 

 posterior end. There are two pairs of anal cirri, one pair much longer than the other 

 (text-figure 258). 



