THE POLYCH.^TOUS ANNELIDS DREDGED IN 1908 BY 

 ME. OWEN BEYANT OFF THE COASTS OF LABRADOR, 

 NEWFOUNDLAND, AND NOVA SCOTIA. 



By J. Percy Moore, 

 Of the Zoological Department of the TJiiiversitij of Pennsijlvania, Philadelphia. 



Our knowledge of the Polychseta of Labrador is very meager, 

 being based almost entirely upon two imperfect lists published by 

 Prof. A. S. Packard in 1863 and 1867, respectively. The second and 

 more complete list embraces 28 species of Polychasta, the determina- 

 tion of several of which is doubtful, though some of the identifica- 

 tions have been verified by Professor Verrill. It was, of course, not 

 to be expected that the Labrador coast would furnish many novelties 

 in this group, but that the fauna would be similar to that of the 

 better-known waters adjacent. 



Beginning with Fabricius, in 1780, the Polychseta fauna of Green- 

 land has had many able students down to our own time, and this 

 group of animals is better known in few regions than in this. The 

 ranges of many species, first made known from the waters of Green- 

 land and northern Europe, have been found to extend to the Ameri- 

 can coast at the region about the Bay of Fundy and the waters 

 surrounding Nova Scotia. Stimpson, Verrill, and Webster and 

 Benedict have described the rich fauna of the former, and Mcintosh, 

 in a series of papers, has recorded especially the results of the dredg- 

 ings of AMiiteaves in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Both regions, while 

 yielding a considerable number of forms peculiar to the American 

 coast, have exhibited a facies essentially Arctic. 



It was to be presumed, therefore, that the Labrador Polychseta 

 would belong chiefly to Arctic species, with some additions from the 

 more southern fauna. Packard's lists had already furnished a basis 

 for this expectation, to which the present collection affords welcome 

 confirmation. Fortunately, the bulk of the collection comes from 

 Labrador, where additions to our knowledge were most to be desired. 

 Of the 51 species recorded, 38 are from the coast of Labrador, and 

 only 7 of these appear in Packard's lists, leaving 31 as probably new 

 to that region. The remaining 13 sj^ecies were dredged mostly off 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 37— No. 1703. 



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