July, 1999 
SCAMIT Newsletter 
Vol. 18, No.3 
darkly on the San Diego specimens, in contrast 
to the holotype, which did not stain on the 
branchiae. It was decided that the San Diego 
specimens be described as a provisional 
species, Spio sp SD L Leslie retained some 
specimens for further examination. 
Kathy Langan-Cranford has examined other 
San Diego species of Spio and reported the 
shapes of dorsal organs of S.filicornis and Spio 
sp A. The dorsal organs of S.filicornis are 
sideways-U- shaped and discontinuous (not 
quite reaching the intersegmental lines). They 
closely resemble those of Leslie Harris’s Spio 
sp A which are figured in the SCAMIT June 
newsletter and the June 2 posting to the 
Taxonomic Discussion List. The dorsal organs 
of San Diego’s Spio sp A are sinuous in shape 
and continuous from segment to segment. 
We then examined some specimens of 
Dipolydora brought by Kathy Langan- 
Cranford. These were found from several 
stations at the Channel Islands and did not 
seem to match any described species. These 
specimens had an incised prostomium, the 
branchiae started on setiger 9, there was black 
pigment spots on some specimens, there was a 
collar on the convex side of the spines on 
setiger 5, notosetae were present on setiger 1, 
there was a superior and inferior fascicle 
present on setiger 5, and the pygidium had 2 
rounded lobes and 2 elongate, tapering lobes. 
The methyl green staining pattern was small, 
paired patches starting on setiger 7, increasing 
in size posteriorly. These specimens had many 
shared characters with Dipolydora bidentata, 
so Leslie pulled the holotype for examination 
and comparison with the Channel Island 
specimens. We were particularly interested in 
viewing the so-called “needle packets” 
described in Blake and Woodwick 1971 and 
Radashevsky 1993, because no one at the 
meeting had seen these structures before. 
Radashevsky 1993 writes about them, “From 
setigers 20-30, notopodia with tight packets of 
needle-like double-edged spines, besides 
capillaries. The packets not protruding through 
cuticle, at first small and with short spines, but 
on succeeding setigers number of spines in 
packets increasing and spines becoming 
longer.” The needle packets on the holotype 
were located with close examination and were 
not nearly as apparent or distinct as illustrated 
in Blake and Woodwick 1971 or Radashevsky 
1993. Kathy re-examined the San Diego 
specimens back at the lab and did find a few 
specimens with structures similar to the needle 
packets. However, most of the specimens 
examined did not have them. Additional 
characters that differentiate the Channel Island 
specimens from D. bidentata are: 1) the 
branchiae start on setiger 9 and 2) the hooded 
hooks are bidentate throughout the length of 
the animal. These specimens will be described 
as provisional species Dipolydora sp SD 1. 
Tony Phillips brought some specimens of 
Scolelepis sp Hyp 1 for us to examine. They 
were from Anaheim Bay, Bight station 2164, at 
a depth of approximately 6 meters. This 
species had an erect, occipital tentacle, 4 eyes 
in a trapezoidal arrangement, a broad 
prostomium ending in an anterior point, and 
palps that extended to setiger 20 and had a 
basal sheath bearing 8+ elongate, narrow 
papillae. These papillae were interesting and 
novel for some of the participants to see since 
palps are often missing from specimens of 
Scolelepis. The neurosetae on Tony’s 
specimens started on setiger 15 and were 
multidentate (one large fang with 3 smaller 
ones). They were very similar to those figured 
for S. geniculata in Imajima 1992. The broad 
prostomium on Tony’s specimens were similar 
to those figured for S. (Parascolelepis) 
yamaguchii in Imajima 1992. There was one 
specimen though that did not have a broad 
prostomium, and it was noted that this 
specimen also did not have the proboscis 
everted as did the other 3 specimens that did 
have a broad prostomium. It was hypothesized 
that perhaps the broadening of the prostomium 
is a result of the proboscis being everted. We 
stained one of Tony’s specimens with methyl 
green, and it had a “halo” of stain around the 
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