r , ANNELIDS. I. 



Iceland: 



Reykjavik; on Laminaria. 



The species is known from Spitzbergen, Novaya-Semlya and the Kara Sea. At the coasts of 

 Europe it goes along the Norwegian coast southwards to the North Sea. It can be met with in 

 tide-pools and it has been taken in depths towards 1000 fins. 



Harmothoe propinqua (Malmgren). 



PI. Ill, fig. I, 3. 

 1867. Lagisca propinqua, Malmgren: Ann. polych. p. 9. 

 1873. — , Sars: Christianiafj. Fauna p. 3. 



1894. Harmothoe propinqua, Bidenkap: Norges Annul, polych. p. 49. 



Locality: 



Iceland, Seydisfjord, 80 m. mud. 



Iceland, Seydisfjord ; between the bridge and the northern side of the bottom of the fjord. 

 Laminaries. 



Iceland, Whale-fjord. 46 m. 



The specimens present agree well in most respects with the description of Malmgren. Biden- 

 kap (1. c. p. 49) emphasizes "the large, globe-shaped chitinous bodies on the scales", and he writes 

 that these proved "quite typical in all the specimens examined by me, not forming any transitional 

 form towards the extraordinarily lengthened and fusiform chitinous bodies, characteristic of H. rari- 

 spinaP Sars considers H. propinqua to be only a more southerly variety of H. rarispina, corresponding 

 to this about as the more southern form of H. imbricata with the more smooth scales corresponds to 

 the more northern form of this species with bodies along the edge of the scales. 



Mc. Intosh refers it to Savi guy's species Lagisca floccosa, described in 1820. I do not think 

 he is right in this; one of the most characteristic features in Malmgren 's species is the great, almost 

 globular bodies along the edge of the scales, but nobody is able to say how Savigny's species would 

 stand in this respect, as it lacks all the scales. Savigny writes: "Je ne puis decrire les elytres qui 

 etoient tombees et que je n'ai pas vues." Nor do I think that Mc. Intosh is right in identifying his 

 Lagisca floccosa with Malmgren's L. propinqua. Malmgren's figure (1. c. T I. fig. 3 c) of an elytron 

 with the large bodies reaching over the edge of the scale does not at all resemble the figure given 

 by Mc. Intosh (1. c. PI. XXXII. fig. 5), where the scale is provided with a greater number of smaller 

 bodies which do not reach the edge of the scale. If one compares my figure (PI. Ill, fig. 3) with Malm- 

 gren's it is, according to my opinion, striking that my specimens from Seydisfjord really are identic 

 with Malmgren's L. propinqua. To settle the question I addressed Professor Theel at the "riks- 

 museum" in Stockholm and asked him to lend me the original specimen of Malmgren's species for 

 examination, but Theel informed me that the latter did not exist in the collections, wherefor I was 

 reduced to my scientific tact. 



The question whether Sars is right in considering Malmgren's species as a mere variety 

 of L. rarispina and not as a distinct species is not easy to decide for the moment. I shall only point 



