SYSTEMATIC ACCOUNT 189 



Vanadis antarctica Benham, 1921, pp. 58-61, pi. 8, figs. 61-2. 



Vanadis antarctica Augener, 1932, pp. 27-8. 



Vanadis antarctica Fauvel, 1936a, pp. 17-18. 



Vanadis antarctica Monro, 1936, p. 116 (in part). 



Vanadis antarctica Stop-Bowitz, 1948, p. 30. 



Vanadis antarctica Stop-Bowitz, 1949, pp. 5-9. 



Vanadis antarctica Stop-Bowitz, 195 1, p. 7. 



Vanadis antarctica Baker, 1954, pp. 208-17. 



Description. One of the only two complete specimens of this species examined measures 230 mm. 

 long for 5 mm. wide across the bases of parapodia, and 15 mm. wide across the tips of chaetae. The 

 two pairs of anterior antennae are ovate; the single posterior antenna, between the large eyes, is 

 digitiform. A circlet of twelve separate papillae terminates the proboscis; the papillae are normally 

 equal in length, but sometimes a few of them are slightly longer than the others. There are three 

 pairs of long, slender tentacular cirri on each of successive segments behind the prostomium, of which 

 the first are joined ventrally by basal ceratophores. The first pair of parapodia have prominent 

 foliaceous cirri (which have frequently been mistaken for a fourth pair of tentacular cirri) and tiny 

 ventral cirri, which are always difficult to see. In the female, the dorsal cirri of the next two parapodia 

 are modified as seminal pouches. Subsequently, there is a group of from seven to ten parapodia, 

 which are small though fully developed, each with a pedal lobe and appendage, compound chaetae 

 and dorsal and ventral cirri. Thereafter the parapodia are much larger with the pedal lobes very 

 much longer than the foliaceous cirri and with exceedingly long chaetae. Segmental glands are 

 strongly pigmented, and in the region of the first group of small parapodia (and sometimes including 

 the most anterior of the larger parapodia) the pigment extends over the dorsal surface of the body. 

 This gives the species the appearance of having a pigmented neck and although the degree of pig- 

 mentation varies from light to heavy it is always present. The occurrence of the pigmented segmental 

 glands in four specimens is given in Table 10. Although the glands are always present anteriorly 

 they may be absent in the middle body-region, but beyond a certain point on the body, varying 

 between the twenty-third and fiftieth parapodia, the glands are present on every segment, in contrast 

 to V. longissima where beyond the fiftieth segment glands are still missing from some chaetigers. 



Discussion. I have examined the type specimen in the B.M.(N.H.) (Reg. no. 1885. 12. 1. 131 a), of 

 Alciopa antarctica Mcintosh, 1885. Unfortunately this specimen is without its head, and efforts to 

 find it, including inquiries at the University of St Andrews, where Mcintosh did his work, have 

 been unsuccessful. However the anterior seminal pouches of the left-hand side are present and in- 

 dicate the specimen is female. As noted on page 187 the specimens reported by Monro (1936) from 

 Sts. WS 408 and 411 as V. antarctica are V. longissima. 



The descriptions of V. antarctica and V. longissima show the close relation of these two species, 

 and the possibility of their being geographical races of one species is discussed on page 224. 



General distribution. V. antarctica is confined to the Antarctic Zone (see p. 224). 



Vanadis violacea Apstein, 1893 

 Type locality. Unknown. 



Vanadis violacea Apstein, 1893, p. 143. 

 Vanadis violacea Monro, 1936, p. 117. 



Monro reported two specimens of this species, one each from 'Discovery', Sts. 413 and 419 

 (B.M.(N.H.), Reg. no. 1936.2.8.900/901), but neither specimen permits of an adequate description 

 of the species, which may represent another race of the V. longissima-V . antarctica complex. 



