POLYCHAETE WORMS, PART 1 223 



Genus Opliioglycera Verrill, 1885b; emend. Hartnian, 1950 



Type (monotypy) : Ophioglycera gigantea Verrill, 1885b. Contains 

 only one New England species. 



Ophioglycera gigantea Verrill, 1885b 



Figure 57,c-e 



Ophioglycera gigantea Verrill, 1885b, p. 436. — Hartman, 1944a, p. 339, pi. 15, 

 fig. 1, pi. 18, fig. 4, pi. 25, fig. 1; 1950, p. 37, pi. 5, figs. 1-3.— Berkeley and 

 Berkeley, 1954, p. 460. 



Ophioglycera grandis Verrill, 1885a, pi. 42, fig. 185. 



Description. — Length up to 760 mm., width up to 14 mm., seg- 

 ments up to 300. Prostomium bluntly conical, annulate, \vith 8-9 

 rings, with 4 short antennae. Basal ring (fused peristomium with 

 prostomium) long, with a pair of dorsolateral grooves and with or 

 without a pair of small lateral eyes. First pair parapodia rudimentary. 

 Anterior region (fig. 57c) consists of about 58 segments (56-64) , with 

 dorsal and ventral cirri and postsetal neuropodial lobes, similar ligu- 

 late. Presetal lobes bilobed, digitiform, slightly shorter than the 

 postsetal lobes. Neurosetae compound spinigers forming a spreading 

 bundle. With a transitional region of about 20 segments where the 

 notopodia develop gradually. 



The fully developed posterior region begins on about segment 81 

 (78-90) where the segments are wider and somewhat flattened 

 dorsoventrally, and the parapodial rami are well separated (fig. 57, 

 d,e). Dorsal cirri broad and flattened. Notopodial lobes with pre- 

 setal triangular lobes, similar in length to dorsal cirri and postsetal 

 short rounded lobes. Notosetae simple, short, capillar}^, nearly 

 hidden by the setigerous lobe. Neuropodial lobes with presetal lobes 

 bilobed with conical tips and postsetal lobes rounded, with narrowed 

 triangular tips. Neurosetae and ventral cirri as in anterior region. 

 Two small anal cirri. 



Proboscis with surface covered with minute papillae or proboscideal 

 organs, without chevrons, with a pair of dentate macrognaths each 

 with about 5 teeth, with a circlet of micrognaths. Color, in fife: 

 pink flesh; preserved: briUiant metallic lustre. 



Biology. — Found at low water on mud flats and on gravelly mud. 

 Dredged on bottoms of mud, muddy sand with stones and broken 

 shells. Mature large specimen found swimming at the surface (type 

 specimen of Verrill). It is one of the largest species of goniadids. 



Material examined. — Nova Scotia (Two Islands near Parrsboro, 

 east side Partridge Island), New Brunswick (St. Andrews, near 

 Biological Station, low water, July 1958), Rhode Island (Narragansett 



