A New Species of Polychaetous Annelid 
(Family Capitellidae) from Southern California^ 
Donald J. Reish^ 
During the course of studying the quanti- 
tative distribution of polychaetous annelids in 
Newport Bay, California, a new species be- 
longing to the capitellid genus Scyphoproctus 
Gravier 1904 was encountered. This is the 
first report of the genus in the eastern 
Pacific Ocean. 
Only two species of this genus have been 
reported previously. Scyphoproctus djihoutiensis 
was described from the Red Sea by Gravier 
(1904, 1906), and subsequently was reported 
from India by Fauvel (1930, 1953). Okuda 
(1940) described S. gravieri from Okinawa. 
The author wishes to express his thanks to 
Dr. Russell Cangialosi for his assistance with 
the drawings. 
Scyphoproctus oculatus n. sp. 
A total of 28 specimens was collected from 
the bottom of Newport Bay, California, with 
a size one Hayward orange-peel bucket. These 
stations were all located near the Pacific Coast 
Highway (Alternate 101) Bridge which passes 
over Newport Bay. 
The holotype measures 20 mm. in length 
and 1.0 mm. in width. Other complete speci- 
mens ranged from 8 to 20 mm, in length. 
The prostomium (Fig. 1) is broadly rounded 
in front and bears one pair of elliptical-shaped 
eyes on either side. The peristomium lacks 
setae. The following 12 segments are setiger- 
ous with only simple capillary setae (Fig. 2) 
^ Contribution Number 234 from the Allan Hancock 
Foundation, University of Southern California. Manu- 
script received November 18, 1957. 
2 Department of Biology and the Allan Hancock 
Foundation, University of Southern California, Los 
Angeles. 
in both the notopodium and neuropodium. 
The abdominal region of the holotype con- 
sists of 85 setigerous segments. Hooded 
hooks (Fig. 3) are present in both the noto- 
podium and the neuropodium of each seg- 
ment, except at the posterior end (see below) . 
The hooks bear one large tooth, three smaller 
teeth, and are covered in part by a hood (Fig, 
3). Just anterior to the anal funnel (Fig. 4) at 
the posterior end of the animal, the hooded 
hooks in the notopodium are replaced by 
simple acicular spines (Fig. 5). The first ap- 
pearance of these spines ranges from the sixth 
to the second segment from the anal funnel. 
The acicular spines of the two notopodia of a 
segment shift towards the median line with 
each succeeding segment so that the spines of 
either side at the segment just anterior to the 
anal funnel nearly touch one another. This 
approaches the condition of a single dorsal' 
line of acicular spines at this segment in S. 
djihoutiensis (Gravier, 1904, I9O6). 
The anal funnel (Fig. 4) is composed of six 
groups of acicular spines (Fig. 6) on each side. 
The number of spines varies dorsoventrally, 
right and left, and from specimen to speci- 
men. Typically there are 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1 (dorsal 
to ventral) acicular spines on each side. How- 
ever, the following variations were observed: 
for the left side 4, 4, 4, 2, 2, 2, and 4, 3, 2, 2, 
1, 1; for the right side 4, 4, 2, 2, 2, 2, and 
4, 4, 2, 2, 1, 1. 
DISCUSSION 
Scyphoproctus oculatus differs from the other 
two species in the genus by the possession of 
a pair of eyes on the prostomium and by only 
six groups of acicular spines on each side of 
the anal funnel. The prostomium of R djihou- 
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