80 Bulletin Vanderhilt Marine Museum, Vol. VII 



ANNELIDA POLYCHAETA 



Family: APHRODITIDAE 



Subfamily: Polynoinae 

 Genus: LEPIDONOTUS Leach 

 Lepidonotus wahlbergi Kinberg 



Plate 26 



Type : The type material of this species was collected by the 

 "Eugenie" in Natal and the Cape of Good Hope and deposited in 

 the museum at Stockholm. 



Distribution : In addition to the type localities, this species 

 was also taken by the "Challenger" at Sea Point, near Cape Town, 

 South Africa, and deposited in the British Museum. It was not 

 taken by the various "Albatross" expeditions in the tropical Pacific 

 nor by the "Siboga" in the Dutch East Indies. The "Alva" record 

 from Raiatea Island, Society Islands, appears to be the first record 

 of this species from outside of the South African area. It is re- 

 stricted to the littoral zone. 



Material examined : One specimen, taken in reef coral, Rai- 

 atea Island, Society Islands, August 21, 1931, by the "Alva." This 

 is apparently the only specimen of this unusual species deposited 

 in an American museum. 



Technical description : The body is short, moderately fusi- 

 form, dorso-ventrally compressed, wider than high, with the dor- 

 sum slightly arched and the venter smooth, slightly concave be- 

 tween the two median lateral ridge-like longitudinal elevations, 

 that tend to emphasize the squarish aspect of the body in cross- 

 section. There is a narrow median linear groove traversing the 

 entire length of the venter, becoming obsolescent near the peris- 

 tome. The anus is large, dorso-caudad, and surrounded margin- 

 ally by a colour pattern of alternate brownish-black and deep cream 

 radiating lines. The dead specimen is 20 millimeters long and 

 consists of twenty-seven segments. The number of pairs of elytra 

 is twelve, only the anterior five pairs of which are present, the 

 posterior seven pairs being indicated by large elytrophores, on 

 somites fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, twenty, twenty-two and 

 twenty-four, which also lack notocirri. 



