120 LEODICID^E OF THE WEST INDIAN REGION. 



Subfamily STAURONEREINjE. 

 Genus STAURONEREIS. 



Staurocephalus Grube, 1855, p. 97. 

 Stauronereis Verrill, 1900, p. 647. 



In a later paper (1860, p. 79) Grube redefined and corrected his original description 

 of this genus. Meanwhile (1856, p. 60), he established the genus Anisoceras for a number 

 of West Indian species, though he later (1879, p. 110) abandoned this genus and 

 included all species under Staurocephalus. Verrill (1900, p. 647) showed that both 

 names were preoccupied and proposed instead Stauronereis. 



The prostomium is rounded, pentagonal or quadrangular, with two articulated ten- 

 tacles and a pair of elongated palps, more or less spirally contorted. Body of compara- 

 tively few somites, the parapodia with dorsal and ventral cirri, but without gills.- Four 

 anal cirri. The maxillary apparatus is composed of two or more rows of toothed plates 

 on either side, the rows diverging to form a v shape and united at the base by a relatively 

 short v-shaped bar. The mandible is bifurcated, the shafts slender, with the cutting 

 margin often prolonged laterally into rows of smaller plates. 



Stauronereis polydonta Verrill. 



(Plate 9, figures 14 to 16; text-figures 435 to 441.) 

 Stauronereis polydonta Verrill, 1900, p. 650. 



This species was recorded by Verrill from Bermuda, but with a very incomplete 

 description. Only two characters were mentioned, viz: the fact that it has more teeth 

 than in the other Bermuda species of Stauronereis, and that "the compound setae have 

 very long, straight, minutely bidentate blades." He gives none of the color characters. 

 Since my specimen agrees with this description as far as it goes, I have identified it as 

 this species. 



A specimen collected in July 1916, at Ely's Harbor, was about 25 mm. 'long, with 

 a prostomial width of less than 0.5 mm., and had about 70 somites. The anterior end 

 (plate 9, figure 14) was colorless, but throughout the greater part the body was colored 

 a light pink, most noticeable in the intersegmental lines, while dorsally the surface 

 was covered with a greenish-yellow pigment, arranged in granules as if stippled on. In 

 the living animal the blood in the cirri contained in two distinct vessels gives them a 

 reddish coloration. 



The prostomium (plate 9, figure 15) is rounded anteriorly, its length about equal 

 to its width. The palps have a cylindrical basal joint, about twice as long as the 

 prostomium, and a short terminal joint. The antennas are shorter than the palps, each 

 with about 12 joints. There are two pairs of eyes, of which the anterior are about twice 

 as large as the posterior and twice as far apart. The peristomium is hardly larger than 

 the following somite, and behind this is a gradual increase to about the middle of the 

 body, then a gradual decrease to the posterior end. There are two pairs of anal cirri 

 (plate 9, figure 16). 



The first parapodium is very small, with a rounded ventral but no dorsal cirrus. 

 Beginning with the second parapodium, the dorsal cirrus becomes prominent and is 

 composed of a long basal and a much shorter terminal joint (text-figure 435 of the tenth). 

 The setal lobe is elongated, with its apex drawn out into two equal dorsal lobes, between 

 which the acicula protrudes. The ventral cirrus is very slender and is attached near 

 the end of the setal lobe. Later parapodia throughout the body agree essentially with 

 this in form. 



The setae are very small, those drawn being magnified nearly to twice the amount 

 used for most of the other figures of setse. The first parapodium has a dorsally placed, 



