Annelids of Alaska—HARTMAN 
5 
A single species was recorded from Alaska by 
Ditlevsen (1917) as Harmothoe aspera Hansen, 
but this is questionably referred to Lagisca mul- 
tisetosa Moore, and was earlier reported. The 
same year Essenberg (1917) described a new 
species, Euphrosyne multibranchiata, from Ko¬ 
diak Island, Alaska. 
Treadwell (1921) added Nereis ( Cerato - 
nereis) alaskensis as a new species, but it has 
been referred to Ceratonereis paucidentata 
(Moore) (Hartman, 1938^: 13). He listed 13 
additional species in 1925 and 1926. Of these, 
five were new records. Subsequently (Tread¬ 
well, 1943) he added Neosabellides alaskensis 
Treadwell. 
Other recent additions are three new species 
added to the list by Hartman (1938 b) and 17 
new records added by Berkeley (1942) in a 
report of 49 species from Alaska. 
Between 1929 and 1934 the State Hydro- 
logical Institute of the Union of the Socialist 
Soviet Republics (Russia) made extensive 
faunal investigations in the northern part of the 
Japan Sea. The polychaetes that were collected, 
together with some others taken from this re¬ 
gion, comprised a total of 272 species (Annen¬ 
kova, 1937 and 1938, with summary in the 
latter). Among these, 61 species are identical 
with those known from Alaska. These are in¬ 
dicated in the systematic list below by the letter 
/. Annenkova stated (1938) (translation from 
the Russian) that about 40 per cent of the ob¬ 
served fauna of the northern Japan Sea are 
species native to the northern part of the At¬ 
lantic Ocean, and that only about 10 per cent 
are common to the Alaska-California fauna. She 
adds, however, that more intensive collecting is 
necessary before sound conclusions can be 
drawn. The list below indicates that nearly 30 
per cent of the species are the same. 
Annenkova (1938: 142-144) recognized 12 
groups of species. These groups are: (1) Arctic- 
boreal species, numbering about 25; (2) Arctic 
species, about 22; (3) species common to the 
Arctic, Atlantic, and Bering Sea, about 18; 
(4) boreal species common to the north At¬ 
lantic, about 22; (5) subarctic species with 
interrupted distribution, about 8; (6) species 
common to Japan and the western Bering Sea, 
6 named in a list; (7) Japan-Okhotsk species, 
18 named in a list; (8) species common to 
California, Alaska, and the north Japan Sea, 
about 16; (9) subtropical Japanese species, 9 or 
10; (10) Indo-Pacific species, 9; (11) endemic 
species, 17; and (12) cosmopolitan species, 13- 
In summary, Annenkova states that 36 per cent 
are warm-water species, 23 per cent are Arctic- 
boreal, 11 per cent are western Pacific, and 11 
per cent are Arctic species. 
For the present, six groups may be recognized 
from the Alaskan species, although it is likely 
that no actual barriers exist; rather, with more 
intensive studies, many species now having a 
restricted range will probably be found more 
widely dispersed geographically. 
The nearest affinities indicated by the tabula¬ 
tion of this material are with the eastern north 
Pacific coast, which has nearly 40 per cent repre¬ 
sented; with the north Atlantic, which has nearly 
37 per cent; and with the north Japan Sea, 
which has nearly 30 per cent. 
The six groups recognized here are designated 
a to / in the following list, in which the 220 
species known from Alaska are systematically 
arranged by families. Of these 220 species 7 are 
doubtful. In the list the reference following the 
complete name indicates the first record for 
Alaska. The names without such citation are 
here recorded for the first time. 
The bracketed letters a to f and J indicate: 
a —Alaska only, including 35 species 
b —Alaska and Arctic, including 4 species 
c —Alaska and either British Columbia, Wash¬ 
ington, or Oregon, including 38 species 
d —Alaska to California, including 89 species 
e —Alaska to California, and Japan or China, 
including 38 species 
/—Alaska and north Atlantic, including 78 
species 
7—refers to the species occurring in Annen¬ 
kova’s (1938) list. 
