NEW POLYCHAETA FROM BEAUFORT, 

 WITH A KEY TO ALL SPECIES RECORDED FROM NORTH CAROLINA 



By 



JOHN H. DAY 



Zodld^y Heiiartim-nt. University of Cape Town 

 Roiulelioscli. South Africa 



ABSTRACT 



()\er (i.lMIO polMhacle worms helcinuinj; lo 22M species were collected on a Iransecl 

 running from the san<i\ shore near Beaufort. N.C. to the upper part of the continental 

 slope in 200 m. Ele\en more species were collected from the shores of Heauliirt Sound 

 and from srah samples in 100. (iOO, and :!.020 m off North ( arolina. The whole collection 

 includes 19 new species. 2 new suhspecies. and It) new records lor the I niled States. 

 These have heen descrihed. An examination of the literature revealed that a further M 

 species had heen recorded hy earlier workers so that a total of '.i'l'.i species of polychaele 

 worms are now known from North Carolina, keys have heen constructed to co\er the 

 whole fauna, all oriKinal records have heen listed, and references lo >;ood descriptions of 

 each species are siven. During Ihe course of the work se\eral type specimens were 

 examined and this has resulted in certain changes in nomenclature and Ihe redelinition 

 of certain fjenera in Ihe families Orhiniidae. I'lal>elli«eridae. and Ampharetidae. 



INTRODUCTION 



Thi.s study is based on material collected in 

 1965 while workingat the Duke University Marine 

 Laboratory in Beaufort, N.C. The aim of the 

 main research work was to find the most suitable 

 method for analysing distribution patterns across 

 the continental .shelf of North Carolina. The 

 results have since been published by Day, P^ield, 

 and Montgomery (1971). The data for the analysis 

 were obtained by sampling the benthic inverte- 

 brates along a line of 10 stations called the 

 Beaufort Shelf Transect, which ran from the 

 shore to 200 m on the continental slope. Over 

 15,000 specimens belonging to 619 species 

 were collected in this way and among them 

 were about 6,000 polychaete worms belonging 



to 229 species. In order to identify,' them, all 

 the species that had previously been recorded 

 from North Carolina were li.sted and the litera- 

 ture was searched for good diagnostic descrip- 

 tions. It was soon found that more than half 

 the species from the transect were new to North 

 Carolina and quite a number of them were new 

 species. The new species and new records 

 were added to the list as they were identified 

 and eventually keys were constructed to cover 

 the whole fauna. As there is no comprehensive 

 work covering the warm water fauna of the 

 Atlantic coast of the United States, it is hoped 

 that this account of the fauna of North Carolina 

 may be of use to other workers. 



A numbered list of papers containing original 

 records of Polvchaeta from North Carolina is 



