38 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



Description. Body oval, with flat papillated sole. The measurements are 25 mm. by 

 12 mm. including the feet. There are about 35 chaetigers. The back is a plaster of fine 

 mud entangled with the felting, which is not penetrated by the dorsal bristles. On 

 probing the felting these are seen as an occasional gleam of chestnut brown. 



The prostomium is globular with a very short stout median tentacle, on either side 

 of which is an ocular prominence without a trace of eyes. Below the tentacle there 

 is a laterally compressed facial tubercle. The palps are stout, tapering and rather short, 

 reaching to the 6th chaetiger (5th foot) when laid along the venter. The tentacular cirri 

 are lost. 



The dorsal bristles corresponding to the large bronzed bristles of the majority of 

 species are very long, of a chestnut brown and end in a hook. They are nearly all 

 broken ofl^ and lie loose, entangled in the felting. This may account for the fact that 

 they do not project through the felting. 



The ventral bristles of the first two chaetigers are of three types: (i) the upper are 

 stout bronze-coloured bristles with slightly curved ends (Fig. 5, b); (2) a few middle 

 bipinnate bristles ; (3) the lower are similar to the middle bristles but more slender and 

 spirally twisted (Fig. 5, c). 



The ventral bristles of the middle feet of the body are of the usual three sizes, and 

 all have slightly curved, heavily bearded ends (Fig. 5, <^). The ventral bristles of the 

 posterior feet change in the usual manner for the genus. The last half-dozen feet are 

 so crowded together that I cannot count with certainty, but at about the 6th from the 

 end the upper bristles (Fig. 5, e) are bearded much further down the shaft than in the 

 middle body, and the middle and lower bristles are strongly denticulated. Further back 

 there are a number of long, fine bristles with alternating teeth. In the last three or four 

 feet of the body the ventral bristles are broken off. I have figured several types of 

 posterior ventral bristle (Fig. 5,/-/). 



In the middle feet the ventral cirri reach to the end of the foot, in the posterior feet 

 they are longer. 



Remarks. I have doubtfully assigned this example to Kinberg's species from off 

 Rio Janeiro, on the ground that the dorsal felting conceals the dorsal bristles. The 

 specimen is an Aphroditella or young Aphrodite and it is indistinguishable, as far as 

 Horst's brief description goes (Horst, 1917, p. 49), from his Aphroditella limosa from 

 a depth of 835 m. off the Malay Archipelago, except in the shape of the median tentacle. 

 It is also very similar to Aphrodite obtecta, Ehlers from the coast of Florida and to the 

 A. talpa, Quatrefages of Fauvel (Fauvel, 1925, pp. 140-144). It is distinguished from 

 the A. echidna, Quatrefages of Mcintosh from the Magellan region by the fact that in 

 A. echidna the dorsal bristles project through the felting. 



This is the first record of an Aphrodite from Antarctic waters. 



I 



