POLYCH^TA. — BENHAM. 155 



I have compared it with specimens from Naples and can 

 find no essential differences ; neither proportions of body 

 Tior of the shield, neither in the colour nor configuration of 

 the latter, neither in the niimber of bundles of chsetae round 

 its margin, nor in the number of those in the rows in anterior 

 region of the body. 



The only instance, so far as I know, of the capture of a 

 member of the genus in these southern waters is that recorded 

 by Selenka in his " Challenger " Report in which he 

 describes under the title of aS'. princeps specimens from deejo 

 water east of the East Cape of New Zealand. A very brief 

 account is given, accompanied by a figure which does not 

 show the features used in his diagnosis. In that account two 

 characters are mentioned — the existence of " about forty " 

 bundles of chsetae around the shield, and the presence of an 

 oblique ridge across the shield dividing it into two unequal 

 areas. But this is true also of *S'. scutafa from Naples. 



The number of bristle-bundles varies, apparently with the 

 size, for in a small specimen there are 28-30 bundles, and in 

 a larger one I find 38 bundles. 



I have specimens of Siernaspis from two widely separated 

 parts of the New Zealand coast — from Akaroa, in the South 

 Island, 6 fathoms, and from the mouth of Akitio Kiver in the 

 North Island, 20-36 fathoms. The former are smaller than 

 the latter, but I can find no difference between them and the 

 Naples specimens, comparing similar-sized individuals. I am 

 compelled, therefore, to suppose either that there are two 

 species of Sternaspis in our New Zealand waters, or that 

 8elenka's species is a synonym — which is the view I take.^ 



Loc. — One hundred and forty-two miles west of Kingston, 

 South Australia, 30 fathoms. 



Distribution. — European seas ; Japan ; North Pacific^ ; 

 New Zealand. 



Family SABELLID^. 

 Genus Sab ellast arte, Kroyer. 

 Sabellastarte japonica, Marenzeller. 



Laonome japonica, Marenzeller, Sud-japan. Annelid., 1884, 

 p. 16. 



The species must be removed from the genus Laonome, 

 Malmgren, in which the thoracic chsetae are of two distinct 

 forms, to that of Sabellastarte, in which there is but one form , 

 though this occurs in two sizes in a bundle.-^ 



1 . I give further details about the«e New Zealand specimens in Trans. 

 N.Z. Inst., vol. xlviii. 



2. Moore— Proc. Acad.. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1903, p. 487. 



3. St. Joseph— Ann. Sci. Nat., Zool., (7), xvii., 1894, p. 249. 



