272 Southeru Cross. 



Apstein transferred this species tentatively to the genus Vanadis 

 on account of the presence of " a short filiform cirrus " (Mclnt.) on 

 the parapodium. But one of the essential characters of Vanadis is 

 the possession of setae cmn^wsifae, while Prof. Mcintosh attributed 

 setae simjplices to his Alciopa antarctica which, if correct, would have 

 justified the constitution of a new genus. 



A true Vanadis had already been recorded from the Southern 

 Seas, namely, V. grccjjiana, Grube, 1877,^ taken between Kerguelen 

 and Australia. 



In the present species the buccal segment resembles that of 

 Vanadis for mosa, figured by Apstein. It does not appear in dorsal 

 view, l3ut seen from below it consists of two broad lobes, each 

 bearing a stout tentacular cirrus at its outer edge and meeting in the 

 middle line in a small triangular piece. Behind the bilobed buccal 

 segment follow two narrow segments, each with a pair of tenta- 

 cular cirri borne upon cirrophores. The fourth segment bears a pair 

 of dorsal cirri with rounded tips and a rudimentary parapodium, but 

 no setae. The fifth and sixth segments in the female bear large 

 spherical dorsal cirri modified to form receptacula seminis. A small 

 mammilla on each receptaculum represents the apex of the modified 

 cirrus. In addition to these remarkable organs ^ the fifth and sixth 

 segments likewise bear a small pharetra setarum, from which the 

 long slender setae project, and a small ventral cirrus. In Vanadis 

 formosa the receptacula are borne upon different segments (viz., 4th 

 and 5th), and there are no setae on these segments (Apstein). 



The occurrence of a pinnigcrous but apparently achaetous 

 segment, between the segments which carry the tentacular cirri and 

 those which bear the receptacula seminis, is a distinctive feature 

 of Vanadis antarctica 9 • 



An incomplete female with 115 segments measured nearly 

 9 inches in length. 



The anterior portion of the body, including the first eight or 

 nine setigerous segments, is slender, cylindiical, and porrect. The 

 sexes are easily distinguished by the absence of the enlnrged dorsal 

 cirri of the anterior setigerous segments in the male and their 

 presence in the female. Behind, and at the base of the more 

 posterior parapodia, there are large black glands more prominent in 

 the male. The general colour in spirit is translucent brown, banded 

 in the abdominal region. 



^ Pliaretra setarum in appendicem brevem filiformem exeuute ; setae compositae. 

 (Grube, MovcUnber. Ak. Berlin, 1877, p. 524.) 



2 Originally described by Hering in 1860; cf. Ilcring, * Zur Kenntniss der 

 Alciopiden von Messina,' S.-B. Ahad. Wien, Bd. 101, Abth. 1, 1892. 



