COMPLETE HARTMAN: POLYCHAETES FROiM CALIFORNIA 67 



margin of the lobe. The 4 eyes are in trapezoidal arrangement. Six 

 pairs of buccal cirri emerge from the first 3 segments; they lack para- 

 podia or setae. The eversible pharynx terminates in a circlet of fimbriae; 

 there are no pharyngeal teeth. Podarke Ehlers (1864, p. 199) is syn- 

 onymous with Ophiodromus (see Hessle, 1925, p. 21). 



Ophiodromus pugettensis (Johnson) 1901 



Podarke pugettensis Johnson, 1901, pp. 397-398, pi. 3, figs. 23-25. 



Ophiodromus pugettensis Hessle, 1925, pp. 20-21. 



Podarke pugettensis Berkeley and Berkeley, 1948, p. 56, figs. 83, 84. 



Collections. Many specimens come from western Washington (type 

 locality) south to southern California and western Mexico, chiefly from 

 intertidal and shallow shelf bottoms. 



The body is short, plump, measures to 40 mm long, 5 mm wide and 

 consists of 60 or more setigerous segments. In life it is usually reddish 

 brown to purple or almost black and the prostomium has conspicuous 

 red eyes in quadrate arrangement. The dorsum may be crossed by series 

 of pale transverse lines, and the cirri and prostomial antennae are pale 

 to nearly white. The prostomium is broadly rectangular, has 3 antennae 

 with the unpaired one at the frontal margin and the paired ones in- 

 serted also in front but within the palpal bases. The prostomium is 

 wider than long, with the two eyes on each side widely separated from 

 those of the opposite side. The everted proboscis is cylindrical and 

 terminates distally in a circlet of many fine, cilialike fimbriae, or is 

 fringed. The buccal area has 6 pairs of cirri, with a pair on each of 

 the first 3 segments; but the first segment is dorsally reduced and the 

 second and third ones are shorter than those farther back. 



The fourth segment is the third complete ring and the first one with 

 parapodia and setae. Notopodial setae are present as inconspicuous 

 fascicles, emerging from the base of the notopodial cirrophore. At 

 sexual maturity the number and length of setae are increased and in- 

 dividuals swarm to the surface of the sea. 



Specimens are either free living, or commensal, usually with asteroid 

 echinoderms, especially of the genera Asterina and Luidia. They are 

 to be found also among eel grasses, under stones and in rocky crevices. 

 When taken from subintertidal areas, they are sometimes recovered with 

 another equally small hesionid, most easily distinguished from Ophio- 

 dromus pugettensis by being white or pale (see Oxydromus arenicolus 

 glabrus, below). 



