THE NEMERTEANS OF PORTO RICO. 
By WESLEY R. COE, Ph. D., 
Yale University . 
The collections of the U. S. Fish Commission steamer Fish Hawk at Porto Pico 
during the months of January and February, 1899, include only 15 entries of nemer- 
teans, indicating a remarkable scarcity of this group of worms in the localities 
visited. 1 Eight species are represented, as follows: 
1. Drepanophorus crassus (Quatr). One specimen from off Guaniquilla. 
2. Tseniosotna delinecttum (Delle Chiaje). One fragmentary specimen from Ensenada Honda, Oulebra. 
3. Txniosoma discolor, sp. nov. Two large, well-preserved specimens from Ensenada Honda, Culebra. 
4. Micrura leucopsis, sp. nov. Four specimens. Hucares. 
5. Cerebratulus cmtillensis, sp. nov. Several ruptured individuals. Mayaguez Harbor. 
6. Linens albocindus Verrill. Ensenada Honda, Culebra. Two specimens. 
7. Lineus or Micrura, sp. indet. Several fragmentary specimens. Ensenada Honda, Culebra. 
8. Cerebratulus, sp. indet. One specimen. Ensenada Honda, Culebra. 
Of these eight species, only three can be referred to previously described forms 
and three are apparently new to science. The specimens comprising the remaining two, 
being known only from preserved material, without color notes, presented no tangible 
characteristics which would lead to their ready diagnosis and can not be referred to 
any species. The three species described as new possess such well-marked peculiari- 
ties of color and structure that the following descriptions will doubtless render them 
easy of redetermination in spite of the absence of drawings. 
1. Drepanophorus crassus Quatr. 
Cerebratulus crassus Quatrefages, Ann. Sci. Nat. (3), vi, 1846. 
Drepanophorus crassus Joubin, Faune Franchise: Les NCmertiens. Paris, 1893. 
A single specimen, which may be referred to this species with a good deal of certainty, was dredged 
off Guaniquilla, on coral and sandy bottom, in fathoms. The color of the preserved specimen is pale 
yellow, but its internal anatomy and the arrangement of the ocelli agree perfectly with those of D. 
crassus, so far as could be determined. A detailed account of the anatomy and histology of this 
species may be found in Burger’s monograph of the Nernerteans of the Gulf of Naples (Fauna u. Flora, 
Monogr. 22). 
The specimen collected at Porto Rico was about 20 mm. in length. The species is found in warm 
waters around the whole circumference of the globe. It is common in the Mediterranean and is 
reported from the British Channel, Madeira, Mauritius, Samoa, Panama, and other tropical localities. 
1 This scarcity of nernerteans is even more striking in the collections of Professor Verrill at Bermuda, where but 
four species are recorded (Trans. Connecticut Acad., x, p. 596-598, 1900), and in the collections of Ehrhardt at Barbados, 
where Burger found but two species (Zeits. f. wiss. Zool., i.xi, p. 16-37, 1895). 
2d— F. C. B. 1900—15 
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