STERNASPIDAE 179 



St. 190. 24. iii. 27. Bismarck Strait, Palmer Archipelago. 64° 56' 00" S, 65° 35' 00" W. 315 m. 

 Gear DLH. Bottom: mud and rock. Two specimens. 



St. 196. 3. iv. 27. Bransfield Strait, South Shetlands. 62° 17' 30" S, 58° 21' 00" W. 720 m. 

 Gear N 70 V. Bottom : mud and diatomic ooze. Fifteen specimens. 



Remarks. I have compared these specimens with some examples from between 

 Iceland and Jan Mayen, and I can find nothing to distinguish the southern from the 

 northern forms. I believe this to be the first record from Antarctic waters. 



Sternaspis scutata (Ranzani), var. africana (Augener). 



Steniaspis fossor, Stimpson, var. africana, Augener, 1918, p. 608, figs. 109 and no. 



St. 274. 4. viii. 27. Off St Paul de Loanda. From 8° 40' 15" S, 13° 13' 45" E to 8° 38' 15" S, 

 13° 13' 00" E. 64-65 m. Gear OTL. Bottom: grey mud. Fourteen specimens. 



St. 279. 10. viii. 27. Off Cape Lopez, French Congo. From 8-5 miles N 71° E to 15 miles N 24° E 

 of Cape Lopez Light. 58-67 m. Gear N 4-T. Bottom: mud and fine sand. One specimen. 



Remarks. The ventral shield is subrectangular with the posterior mid-ventral notch 

 much reduced, the anterior bristles are more slender, numerous (about 20 in a bundle 

 as opposed to lo or 12, the usual number in S. scutata) and closely set than in iS. scutata 

 (cf. Augener 's figs. 109 a and b, and no), and eight out of the fifteen examples have 

 an appearance of macroscopic papillation on the posterior segments visible to the 

 naked eye. 



These specimens correspond to Augener's account, and I agree that this form differs 

 from the S. scutata of European and colder South Atlantic waters, but I cannot follow 

 him in regarding it as a variety of S. fossor, Stimpson. I have examined three examples 

 from Massachusetts Bay, labelled S. fossor, from the United States National Museum, 

 and except for traces of what appears to be macroscopic papillation round the posterior 

 end they are indistinguishable from the European form. In fact I agree with Fauvel 

 (1927, p. 216) in uniting S. fossor with S. scutata. 



The appearance of macroscopic papillation seems to be due to small, more or less 

 regularly spaced, aggregations of fine particles of mud entangled in tufts of thread-like 

 papillae {Hautcirren). I suspect that these groups of particles correspond in position 

 to islands of gland cells secreting a viscous fluid that causes the particles to adhere to 

 the papillae ; and I am not satisfied that they represent special concentrations of skin 

 papillae, which appear to be distributed over the skin equally in examples with and 

 without the apparent macroscopic papillation. Anyhow, the fact that this papillation 

 may be present or absent in examples from the same haul renders it of no value as a 

 difi^erential character. 



Marenzeller (1890, PI. i, figs. 4-7) gives comparative figures of the ventral shields of 

 three species of Sternaspis and, with Augener, regards the differences in their shape as 

 specific characters. After examining a very large series of Antarctic specimens, I am 

 of the opinion that the shape of the shield varies too much to be of value as a differential. 

 However, on the whole, the shield of these African specimens is more subrectangular 



