September, 1999 
SCAMIT Newsletter 
Vol. 18, No. 5 
collection and putting in a day to help organize 
a portion of the collection, please call Larry. 
Larry hopes to put out a projected schedule for 
the organization of various taxa. 
We then started our parade of problematic 
polychaete specimens. Tony Phillips 
(CLAEMD) handed out a voucher sheet for 
Marphysa sp B which is synonymous with his 
Morphysa sp HYP 1 Phillips 1999. This 
species was found at station 2151, Dana Point 
Harbor, with oyster shell hash, at a depth of 6 
meters. In this species, the five occipital 
tentacles were short, reaching the anterior edge 
of the prostomium. The branchiae started on 
setiger 10 as a single filament and reached a 
maximum of three filaments on setigers 45 
through setiger 102. 
Larry Lovell announced that he has contacted 
Andy Mackie regarding Paradoneis sp HYP 1 
and Paradoneis sp SD 1, and Andy has agreed 
to look at our specimens. Larry graciously 
volunteered to collect specimens, send them to 
Andy, and also to prepare a voucher sheet on 
this species. 
Rick Rowe (CSDMWWD) then reported on 
four curious specimens from Catalina Island, 
station 2081, collected at a depth of 50 meters. 
After some investigation, it was determined 
that they were Pilargidae genus A of Williams. 
Next Kelvin Barwick (CSDMWWD) showed 
us a paraonid specimen, Aricidea (Acmira) sp 
SD1 from Santa Cruz Island. He had found 
this species at three stations. This specimen 
had a bluntly rounded prostomium, 12 pairs of 
branchiae starting on setiger 4, and 2 pygidial 
cirri were evident. There was reddish-brown 
pigment throughout the worm, and Kelvin 
commented that usually this pigment was 
faded. There were bristles on the modified 
setae that could be mistaken for hoods. Kelvin 
produced a voucher sheet for this species and 
posted it on the SCAMIT website. 
Next Rick Rowe distributed a voucher sheet on 
Macrochaeta sp A. He had found this species 
at San Miguel Island (station 2469,33 m 
depth) and also at two ITP stations (1-34, 63 ft 
depth and 1-7,171 ft depth). Cheryl Brantley 
had also found this species at San Miguel 
Island (station 2490 at 75 m depth and station 
2491 at 95 m depth). This was a small animal 
which had unusually large setae. To view 
many of the characters for this species, such as 
the segmentation, palp and branchial scars, and 
papillation, stain the worm with alcian blue. 
Rick also reported on a specimen he called 
Nephtys sp SD 3 that was collected at station 
2523, Santa Barbara Island. The dorsal 
lamellae were enlarged similar to N. squamosa 
Ehlers 1887. 
Kelvin next showed us a specimen of Pista. 
After examining the specimen, we concluded 
that it was Pista disjuncta, following the 
present convention for Pista identification. A 
discussion ensued about the difficulty of 
finding the long handled setae in specimens of 
Pista (present on setigers 1 and 2) which is a 
distinguishing characteristic for this genus. It 
was suggested that one may want to dissect a 
tissue sample from the animal, clean the tissue 
with a few drops of bleach, and then look for 
the long handled setae. One must observe the 
tissue frequently before the setae also dissolve 
in the bleach. Kelvin suggested an alternate 
method; after removing the tissue, he prepares 
a wet mount using methyl salicylate as the 
mounting medium. This clears the tissue 
enough to see the handles. This is the same 
method used for clearing flatworms. 
Next we examined a specimen of Aricidea 
(Acmira) cf cerruti brought in by Kelvin. He 
found two specimens at the Channel Islands 
station 2523 at 106 m depth. The specimen 
had a rounded prostomium; however, the 
median antenna was missing. There were 16 
pairs of branchiae, and the modified setae were 
the same as illustrated in Laubier 1967. We 
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