QA MR. L. N. G. RAMSAY ON 
Moore, in 1909 (12, p. 244) “provisionally ” bestowed the stib- 
specific name of plenidentata on specimens from California, which 
he found to be characterized by a larger number of segments and 
more numerous paragnaths. He also suggested that the form from 
the more northerly parts of the Pacific coast should be separated 
as JV. virens brandti, on account of similar differences, which he 
found to be present in a less marked degree. His final opinion 
on the matter has not yet appeared. 
Izuka, (5, loc. cit.) founds his new species on slight differences in 
the numbers and arrangement of paragnaths in certain groups, 
and on the number of teeth in the jaws. I should like here to 
draw attention to an exceedingly good paper on Wereis virens 
from the Atlantic coast of America (17). In this the writer 
gives particulars of the variation of the paragnaths, which he 
found to be very wide even in a small number of specimens. [ 
can see no reason for regarding the Japanese species as distinct 
from that of Western America. 
Nereis (PLATYNEREIS) AGASSIZI Ehlers. 
Nereis agassizi Khlers (2), p. 542, pl. xxiii. fig. 1. 
Two small] specimens from Departure Bay, 8th May, 1911. 
These are both male heteronereids which were found amongst 
material dredged in the Bay. 
The paragnaths have the arrangement typical of the species 
of the Platynereis group, I, II, and V being absent, the other 
groups represented by pectiniform rows, which are not so con- 
tinuous as usual, but more broken up. (I have noted this feature 
occasionally in Huropean specimens of V. dumerilii.) 
The large homogomph falcigerous sete of the notopodial 
bundle are represented by a single large bristle with fused 
appendage in each parapod, commencing about the 14th pair. 
These have been figured by various authors (2, 5, 10). 
These two nereids, each of which has about 76 pairs of para- 
podia, are about 25-27 mm. in length. The heteronereid form 
is not completely assumed, many of the ordinary sets not yet 
having been cast in the posterior region. In the more advanced 
of the two, the transition in the form of the parapodia occurs at 
the 19-20th pair. The noto-cirri of the first seven pairs have 
the characteristic swollen outline. 
A considerable cloud hangs over the species of Platynereis 
which are found in the Northern Pacific (as in the case of those 
in other parts of the world). 
We are concerned with the three species (?) :-— 
NV. dumerilit Aud. et Edw. 
XN. kobiensis McIntosh. 
NV. agassizi Ehlers. 
These species in the Pacific Ocean (dwmerilit, of course, 
occurring elsewhere) are all characterized by the presence of 
