LEODICID^ OF THE WEST INDIAN REGION. 15 



Leodice rubra Grube. 



(Plate 2, figures 1 to 4; text-figures 13 to 20.) 



Eunice rubra Grube, 1856, p. 59. 



Eunice rubra Ehlers, 1887, p. 87, plate 26, figures 1-11. 



Eunice rubra Treadwell, 1901, p. 197. 



Eunice ornala Andrews, 1891a, p. 284, plate 13, figures 6-13. 



Eunice ornala Treadwell, 1901, p. 195. 



A small form, found in crevices in the coral rocks. A mature female with about 

 130 somites was 105 mm. long with a head width of 3 mm. 



General body-color in life is dark olive-green, shading into purplish brown toward 

 the posterior end, though in sexually mature forms the color posteriorly is largely 

 dependent on the color of the sex products. All color is lost in the preservation. 



The prostomium (plate 2, figures 1 and 2) is noticeably bilobed and is mostly color- 

 less, though with some brown and green pigment in front of the tentacles. The tentacles 

 are foreshortened in figure 2; in life the median reaches to the anterior border of the 

 fourth somite, the inner paired are nearly as long, and the outer paired are much shorter. 

 Each has a small basal joint followed by a longer one, and this is followed by shorter 

 articulations, becoming moniliform toward the end. The basal half of the inner paired 

 •and the median tentacles is a light olive-green; their terminal half is colorless. The outer 

 paired tentacles are also without color. The eyes are small and dark blue in color. A 

 narrow, collar-like prolongation of the peristomium extends over the base of the prosto- 

 mium. This is mainly without color, but has some pigment along its anterior border, 

 mainly in three patches, one behind each of the inner paired tentacles and one behind 

 the median. On either side, between the pigmented spots, are prominent flecks of white. 



The color of the dorsal surface of the prostomium (plate 2, figure 2) is olive-green 

 and brown flecked with white, the latter being most prominent along the anterior border. 

 Ventrally the same colors appear, but are not so marked as dorsally. On its lower 

 surface the peristomium is prolonged into a prominent lip, which is bounded on either 

 side by a distinct groove extending back for more than one-quarter of the length of the 

 peristomium. The second somite is very short, with essentiallj^ the same ground-color 

 as the other somites and has dorsally a transverse row of white spots. The nuchal 

 cirri extend to about the middle of the peristomium and are colorless but flecked with 

 white pigment. 



The third somite is about twice as long as the second, and later somites are essen- 

 tially similar to the third, though the body gradually narrows toward the posterior 

 end. For the first third of the body there is dorsally a transverse green band in each 

 somite; through the median region this surface is a diffuse olive-green (plate 2, figure 3), 

 while the extreme posterior end is a deep maroon (plate 2, figure 4). In a sexually mature 

 female the somites containing eggs have a drab color. 



Beginning with the sixth, each somite has a conspicuous white spot in the median 

 dorsal line (plate 2, figures 1,3). Behind the eighteenth somite other spots appear on 

 either side of the median line, singly at first, but later becoming more or less diffuse 

 patches. 



There are two pairs of anal cirri, the dorsal ones being much the larger and notice- 

 ably articulated (plate 2, figure 4). The first parapodium has a small setal lobe and large 

 cirri (text-figure 13). Two black aciculae extend into the setal lobe. The succeeding 

 somites show a relative increase in the importance of the setal portion (text-figure 14). 

 The dorsal cirri are relatively much more slender, while the ventral cirrus is a small 

 lobe at the end of a much-swollen ventral pad. This pad-like structure persists for only 

 about 20 somites and then disappears, parapodia from the middle of the body showing 

 no trace of it (text-figure 15). The tenth parapodium (text-figure 14) shows the anterior 



