20 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
SABELLA Linneus 
Sabella melanostigma Schmarda 
Sabella melanostigma Schmarda, (1861), p. 36, figs. a and b, pl. XXII, 
fig. 190. 
Ehlers, (1887), pp. 263 to 266. 
I have based this identification largely on Ehlers’ description, 
for while the specimens agree with the diagnosis given by 
Schmarda, they are, except for the presence of the dark spots, 
quite unlike Schmarda’s figure 190. The figure shows a specimen 
entirely devoid of collar and is so aberrant that it seems cer- 
tain that either an imperfect individual was seen or an error 
made by the artist. There seems to be some variability in the 
number of thoracic somites in this species, for Ehlers gives the 
number as 15 while these have from 10 to 138. As they are 
smaller than those seen by Ehlers the difference is possibly due 
to age. Hoagland (1919, pp. 577 and 578, pl. XXX, figs. 10 
to 15; pl. XXXI, figs. 1 and 2), described from Porto Rico 
what she regarded as a variety of Sabella melanostigma and 
this had only 8 thoracic somites. In other respects these agree 
with Ehlers’ description. 
Associated with the thoracic uncini are series of inconspicuous 
pennoned set not described by either Schmarda or Ehlers but 
found by Hoagland in the Porto Rico material. The tubes are 
composed of a fine, light-gray mud. Abundant at Needham’s 
Point, 3 specimens were taken at Falmouth Harbor and they 
are recorded as in ‘‘sand at low tide, Barbados.”’ 
Hyprsicomus Grube 
Hypsicomus purpureus new species 
I have given this name to a fragment of Hypsicomus collect- 
ed at Pillars of Hercules, English Harbor, Antigua. While 
only the gills, thorax and 11 body somites are present these are 
well enough preserved to show that they belong to a new species. 
The bases of the gills are rather heavy and are in contact so that 
they give the effect of a cylindrical peduncle about eight times as long 
as the height of the collar. In the preserved material the color of this 
pedunele is purplish brown. At its base each gill rachis is colored much 
like the peduncle but this color rapidly lightens toward the apex. The 
rachides are about three times as long as the basal peduncle; are united 
by a membrane for about one-quarter of their length; their apices are 
blunt and devoid of filaments. The filaments in general are much lighter 
in color than the rachides, though toward the base of each gill there are 
