May, 1999 
SCAMIT Newsletter 
Vol. 18, No. 1 
have “clumps” of red pigment at the base of the 
dorsal cirri, although these are not present in all 
specimens. Pettibone (1993) does illustrate 
these red spots. 
Cheryl Brantley showed us an unknown 
scaleworm, small, with transparent elytra, a 
wide prostomium, and brown speckled pigment 
on the posterior of the prostomium. This 
specimen is from station 2205, off White’s 
Point, Palos Verde, 64 m. We speculated that it 
might be a new species of Malmgreniella. 
Cheryl continued her investigation the next day 
at her lab and posted a note to the Bight 98 
Taxonomic Listserver (May 4,1999) regarding 
this specimen. She examined several 
specimens of Ysideria hastata and believes this 
specimen is a juvenile, and the large distinctive 
superior neurosetae are not fully developed yet. 
‘The bifid teeth on the neurosetae and the 
serration on the shaft match very closely.” 
Thank you, Cheryl, for continuing your 
investigation and reporting back to us. 
The next polynoid up for discussion was 
Harmothoe “imbricata ”. There is considerable 
variation in the color and color pattern of the 
elytra of this species complex. Tony Phillips 
had a specimen from LA Harbor that exhibited 
a black-grey mottled pattern on the elytra. 
Larry Lovell reported that a specimen from 
Newport Harbor had black-grey pigment that 
formed a longitudinal, mid-dorsal band on the 
elytra. Both of these color morphs are figured 
in Pettibone 1953. Imajima (1997) has 
recently published a paper describing 6 new 
species of Harmothoe having sub-ventral eyes. 
We need to carefully compare our different 
color morphs of H. “ imbricata ” to see if they 
match one (or more) of Imajima’s new species. 
Next, Leslie Harris showed us an interesting 
spionid that was collected in Puget Sound. It 
was similar to Spio filicornis of Maciolek with 
the following differences: 1) the specimen had 
nuchal organs that were in a zig zag 
configuration and 2) the pigmentation didn’t 
match. Leslie had also seen these same 
specimens from local waters as well as from 
Vancouver. Let’s keep our eyes open for this 
little spionid in the Bight 98 samples. 
We then moved on to syllids. Tony Phillips 
had a Typosyllis collected from Fish Harbor in 
Los Angeles Harbor. Ron Velarde had a 
second similar specimen collected from San 
Diego Bay (station 2224). Leslie Harris 
identified both of these specimens as T. 
nipponica. She had pulled thousands of 
specimens off the docks in Richmond Harbor, 
San Francisco Bay. Upon a return visit, after 
the El Nino, these worms were gone, along 
with many other species, due to the flushing of 
the Bay with large amounts of freshwater. 
Ron Velarde brought a little syllid that was 
collected offshore of San Diego at a depth of 
98 ft. It looked like a Typosyllis farallonensis 
except for a strange additional character. There 
were golden-colored caps covering the ends of 
some of the setae. We don’t know what this 
substance is, and we couldn’t tell by looking at 
the specimen whether they were secreted at the 
time of setal formation or were somehow 
added or accumulated later. 
We then examined a couple of specimens from 
the family Eunicidae. The first was a 
Marphysa brought in by Tony Phillips 
collected from Dana Pt. Harbor. It had palmate 
branchiae, and using Hartman’s Atlas, keyed 
out to the couplet with M. mortenseni and M. 
sanguinea. The specimen had some characters 
of each species and had tentacles that were 
intermediate in length. We found spinigers on 
this specimen (like M. sanguinea) but no 
falcigers. Larry Lovell brought a juvenile 
Marphysa from Newport Bay (station 2137), 
and we initially wondered whether it was the 
same species as Tony’s Marphysa. The 
juvenile specimen had only 3 antennae. Upon 
close examination, we did find falcigers on 
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