142 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I28 



Lanassa venusfa (Malmgren) was represented by 44 specimens 

 from no to 453 feet, the 125-foot station yielding 10. This worm 

 lives in a soft tube of mud cemented together with mucus, with a 

 thin membranous lining, and with a small amount of sand and small 

 pebbles adhering to the outside. The worm is pale peach below, some- 

 what darker above, with apricot tentacles tipped with red. 



Seventy-nine specimens of Nicolea venustula (Montagu) were 

 dredged from 80 to 213 feet, with 12 specimens coming from 125 feet. 

 This worm lives in a tube of coarse sand attached to rocks. Fauvel 

 (1927) states that it lives in a "thin tube of sand agglutinated to 

 branches of algae or hydroids." In the absence of algae at Point 

 Barrow, it apparently chooses the next best object for attachment. 



By far the most abundant terebellid, and perhaps one of the most 

 abundant polychaetes, was Pista maculata (Daly ell), which lives in 

 long, cylindrical, membranous tubes with adherent foraminifers, small 

 pebbles, and various kinds of debris. The bulk of the dredge haul 

 from 477 and 741 feet was a mass of tubes of this species. The 

 tubes were so long and so intertwined that it was difficult to disen- 

 tangle them and it was still more difficult to remove a worm (up to 

 150 mm. when preserved) intact from its tube. Although 27 specimens 

 of this worm were taken at 11 other stations from 125 to 522 feet 

 (the most from any one station being 3), this species obviously pre- 

 fers a soft, muddy bottom such as was encountered at 477 and 741 

 feet, for none was taken in the clayey mud zone. 



Thirty-five specimens of Polycirnis medusa Grube were dredged 

 from 80 to 477 feet. Six specimens from 125 feet were obtained by 

 breaking apart the bryozoans Bidenkapia spitzhergenis and Myrio- 

 2011m subgracile. Egg-filled females were reddish, but when the skin 

 burst and released the eggs the worm became dark green. 



Six specimens of Proclea graffi (Langerhans) were collected from 

 125, 217, and 216 feet. 



Seven specimens of Thelepus cincinnatus (Fabricius) were dredged 

 from 120, 125, 438, 477, 453, and 741 feet. The twisted, cylindrical 

 tubes were associated with those of Pista maculata at 477 and 741 feet, 

 and with the stems of the hydroid Tubidaria at 120 feet. The hydroid 

 in turn was associated with the mud-tube nests of the amphipod 

 Ericthonius tolli. Sperm-filled specimens were apricot above and 

 along the sides and white beneath, with bright-red branchiae and 

 olive-apricot tentacles. 



Eighty-seven specimens of Terehellides stroemi M. Sars, one of 

 which was parasitized by the copepod Saccopsis terehellidis, were 



