350 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, VoL XIII, October, 1959 
scription; there is not the marked reduction 
of the median lobe in posterior parapodia 
mentioned by Hartman. Hence there is no 
reason to doubt that the two are identical, 
and that the viviparous nereid commonly 
called Neanthes lighti should be known as a 
synonym of Nereis limnicola Johnson (1903). 
Since the viviparity of N. limnicola is the 
consequence of hermaphroditism making 
possible internal self-fertilization (Smith, 
1950), N. Umnicola must be regarded as an 
entity reproductively isolated from certain 
nonviviparous but morphologically very simi- 
lar species. A more extended discussion of 
the implications of this contention is to ap- 
pear elsewhere (Smith, 1958). 
REFERENCES 
Hartman, O. 1938. Brackish and fresh-water 
Nereidae from the northeast Pacific, with 
the description of a new species from cen- 
tral California. Univ. Calif. PubL Zool. 43: 
79-82. 
Hartman, O. 1944, Polychaetous annelids 
from California including the descriptions 
of two new genera and nine new species. 
Allan Hancock Pacif. Exped. 10(2): 239- 
306, pis. 19-26. 
Johnson, H. P. 1903. Fresh-water nereids 
from the Pacific Coast and Hawaii, with 
remarks on fresh-water Polychaeta in gen- 
eral. Mark Anniv. VoL, pp. 205-223, pis. 
XVI-XVII. 
Light, S. F., R. I. Smith, F. A. Pitelka, 
D. P. Abbott, and F. M. Weesner. 1954. 
Intertidal Invertebrates of the Central Cali- 
fornia Coast, ix + 446 pp. Univ. of Calif. 
Press, Berkeley. 
Smith, R. I. 1950. Embryonic development 
in the viviparous nereid polychaete, Ne- 
anthes lighti Hartman. /. Morph. 87: 417- 
466. 
Smith, R. I. 1958. On reproductive pattern as 
a specific characteristic among nereid poly- 
chaetes. Syst. Zool. 7: 60-73. 
