DISTRIBUTION OF POLYCHAETES WITHIN THE INDO-PACIFIC 407 



cosmopolitan species listed for this area 30 are also found in the Philip- 

 pines. 



Southern Japan has a distinctive fauna with 117 endemic species 

 (34%), the largest endemic element of any of the areas. Cosmopolitan 

 species comprise 24% of the fauna (71 species), the Japanese element 

 11% (36 species) and the Indo-Pacific element 7% (21 species). North- 

 ern Japan also has a distinctive fauna with 35 endemic species (29%), 

 28 Japanese species (23%) and 12 Northern Pacific species (10%). 

 Annenkova (1938, quoted by Hartman, 1948) lists 272 species for the 

 northern part of the Japanese Sea. Of these 36% are warm water spe- 

 cies, 23% are Artie-boreal, 11% are western Pacific and 11% are Arctic 

 species. 



The Hawaiian polychaete fauna is incompletely known and, as Ed- 

 mondson (1940) states, the large population of reef dwellers remains 

 to be investigated. Of the 66 species listed 28, or 43%, are endemic. 

 From what is known it would appear that the relationships are with 

 the Northern Pacific, Japan and Indo-Malaya rather than with the 

 tropical Pacific. 



The fauna of the tropical Pacific Islands, areas 11, 12 and 13, is 

 also very incompletely investigated. Fiji-Samoa shows a large endemic 

 element but most of these belong to one family, the Eunicidae. A 

 group of tropical Pacific species is also important in all three areas. 

 The endemic element is small (9%) in the Micronesia-Melanesia area 

 and in the Indo-Pacific large (27%). When more information is avail- 

 able it is probable that this area will foiTn one division of the tropical 

 Pacific and Polynesia another. 



Of the 20 non-cosmopolitan species reported from the Kermadec 

 Island only 4 have also been recorded from New Zealand. The rela- 

 tionships of these islands would appear to be with the tropical Pacific 

 and with Indo-Malaya. 



The composition of the two New Zealand areas is so similar that 

 separation is not justified. Of the 116 non-cosmopolitan species listed 

 for southern New Zealand 67 have also been recorded from the north- 

 ern portion. If these two areas were giouped, the endemic element 

 would form 31% and the Antarctic element 22% of the fauna. There 

 is also an Australasian element of 10% and an Indo-Pacific element of 

 12%. 



New Caledonia closely resembles tropical Northeast and Northwest 

 Australia. It resembles Northeast Australia in that in both the Aus- 

 tralian element is small, 7% in the former and 9% in the latter, and 

 the Indo-Pacific element is large, 26% in the former and 23% in the 

 latter. Of the 58 non-cosmopolitan species listed for this area 25 have 



