292 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 227 



they attain their largest size, as well as in the foulest organic mud 

 in sheltered coves. Those living in mud are usually smaller. They 

 are dredged in shallow waters and may occur in bracldsh or estuarine 

 waters, as the Eel Pond, Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard. In the 

 Woods Hole region, they breed abundantly in July and early August. 

 The eggs are easily fertihzed artificially (Moore, ms.). Females 

 with eggs massed in the body were found in June and July (West 

 Falmouth, June 25, 1954, July 6, 1954; Eel Pond, Edgartown, June 

 25, 1954; Sippowisset, July 25, 1953). In Maine, females with whitish 

 to yellowish eggs and males with white sperm masses were found in 

 July (Little River, Georgetown Island, July 3, 1955). 



Material examined. — Numerous specimens from Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence (lagoon, Madeleine Island), Newfoundland (St. George 

 estuary), Nova Scotia (Cape Breton Island, head Cheticamp Inlet), 

 Maine (Sagadahoc Bay and Little River, Georgetown Island; Brave 

 Boat Harbor, north of Sea Point), New Hampshire (Emerson Beach, 

 Oyster River, Hampton Beach), Massachusetts (Plum Island, 

 Martha's Vineyard, Woods Hole region, Elizabeth Islands, Cape Cod), 

 Long Island Sound (Noank Harbor), Maryland (Chincoteague Bay, 

 Chesapeake Bay), Virginia (Norfolk), Florida (Seahorse Key, Pensa- 

 cola), Mississippi (off 9-Mile Bayou). 



Distribution. — Gulf of St. Lawi-ence, Newfoundland to Florida, 

 Gulf of Mexico. Low water to 56 fathoms. 



Scoloplos (Scoloplos) armiger (O. F. Miiller, 1776) 



Figure 7Q,h,i 



Scoloplos armiger Webster and Benedict, 1887, p. 738. — Fauvel, 1927, p. 20, 

 fig. 6, fc-g.— Procter, 1933, p. 140.— Hartman, 1944a, p. 340, pi. 18, fig. 5; 

 1957, p. 280, pi. 29, figs. 1-7.— Thorson, 1946, p. 78, fig. 37.— Smidt, 1951, 

 p. 53, fig. 21.— Wesenberg-Lund, 1953, p. 54.— Newell, 1954, p. 334.— 

 Grainger, 1954, p. 516.— Fettibone, 1954, p. 278, fig. 32,a-e.— Uschakov, 1955, 

 p. 258, fig. 86.— Kirkegaard, 1959, p. 15.— Anderson, 1959, p. 89.— Clark, 

 1960, p. 24. 



Scoloplos armigera Hartmann-Schroder, 1959, p. 163. 



Description. — Length up to 120 mm., width up to 2.5 mm., 

 segments up to 200. Prostomium conical, acutely pointed, with a 

 pair of deep-set eyes (not uFually visible when preserved). Branchiae 

 begin on about setiger 12 (9-17). Thoracic setigers about 17 (12-20). 

 Thoracic neuropodia with dense fan-shaped bundles of neurosetae, 

 mostly ending in fine tips. Some neurosetae in the lower or anterior 

 part of the bundle may be worn down, with blunt tips, resembling 

 crotchets (the crotchets may occur in all the thoracic segments, in some 

 only or may be lacking, fig. 76i). 



Abdominal region with paired branchiae, with erect digitiform 

 postsetal notopodial lobes, without interramal cirri but with interramal 



