24 THE ANNELIDA POLYCHAETA. 



area, where they abound on the coral reefs, in the Philippines, and in the West 

 Indies. They occur especially in the littoral zone and at moderate depths, 

 though they have been taken as far down as 1525 fms. (e. g., Chloenea atlantica 

 Mcintosh. See Challenger Annehda, 1885). These animals are sluggish in 

 movement, showing a marked tendency toward a sedentary and in some cases 

 a parasitic life, and concealing themselves in retreats which they rarely leave. 

 Many species live in large part upon sponges, among which they hide. They 

 also eat diatoms and radiolarians and other forms occurring in fixed localities. 

 The nutritive value of the food being low necessitates the ingestion of an excep- 

 tional quantity and this is correlated with an anal opening of unusual size. 

 (C/. Gravier, Nouv. arch. Mus. hist, nat., 1901, ser. 4, 3, p. 239). Some forms 

 are frequently found attached to floating wood or other objects far from land. 

 Such a form is notably Amphinome vagans Savigny (p. 27), which has been 

 taken in drift in various parts of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. 



The Amphinomidae (sens, str.) have not been represented in the collections 

 of the important exploring expeditions by large numbers of species excepting 

 in those of the Siboga in which Horst found no fewer than twenty-two species. 

 Grube mentions five species from the Philippines in the Annulata Semperiana, 

 listing four secured by the Gazelle, and three in the Annulata Oerstediana. 

 The Challenger secured nine species, this comparatively small number being 

 attributed by Mcintosh to the fact that but Uttle httoral collecting was done. 

 But, on the other hand, in the large collection of annelids secured by the Ham- 

 burg expedition to southwestern Australia and coming almost exclusively from 

 the Httoral zone or from moderate depths, there are but two species of amphino- 

 mids, while Ehlers in his Neuseelandische Anneliden lists none at all, as is also 

 the case in that author's report on the polychaetes of the Hamburger Magal- 

 haenische Sammelreise. Ehlers gives two species as found on the Patagonian 

 shores, and includes five in his Florida annelids. Of the polychaetes collected 

 by the Blake in the West Indies, Augener lists three species as belonging to this 

 family. In the Albatross collection from the Hawaiian Islands (1902) Tread- 

 well found five amphinomids. In his Polychaeta of the Indian Oceaji Potts 

 lists thirteen species. Izuka mentions but three species as known from Japan, 

 and Mcintosh in his monograph of British annelids includes but two. In 

 the present collection there are five species, of which two are widespread and well- 

 known forms, two uncommon, and one new. 



