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The Atoll of Funafuti, Ellice group : its zoology, botany, ethnology and general structure based on collections made by Charles Hedley of the Australian Museum, Sydney, N.S.W.

Class Chætopoda. — By T. Whitelegge

Class Chætopoda.
By T. Whitelegge.

Order Polychæta.

Family Amphinomidæ.
Eurythoä Complanata, Pallas.

Eurythoä complanata (Pallas), Baird, Jour. Linn. Soc, Zool., x., 1870, p. 222.

A single specimen is here referred to this species. The example is 25 cm. in length, 2 cm. in width, and l·2 cm. in thickness; there are 135 body segments. The head is too much retracted to determine the limits of the caruncle without injuring the specimen. The body is pretty uniform in width to within 2 or 3 cm. of the extremities.

The dorsal bristles consist of three forms, there are numerous elongate tapering bristles a few of which are simple, the majority however are subbifid, the shorter division being rudimentary and scarcely perceptable, the longer division is much elongated tapering and smooth. There are also numerous stout, broad serrated bristles having from 40 to 50 strong recurved teeth. The ventral bristles are stout with broad bifid and compressed apices, the longer divisions are quite smooth and about seven or eight times longer than the shorter, frequently there are one or two slender bifid bristles in which the divisions are long and cylindrical.

Eurythoä pacifica, var. Levukænsis, McIntosh. Eurythoä pacifica var.

levukænsis, McIntosh, Chall. Report, Zool., xii. p. 29, pl. xvi., fig. 5; pl. 11a fig. 14; pl. 11la figs. 10 - 12. There are numerous specimens referable to this species, the body is tapering, measuring from l·5 to 5 cm. in length and consists of about ·60, segments. The bristles agree very closely with the figures given by McIntosh in the Challenger Report.

Family Phyllodocidæ.
Phyllodoce sp.

This form is represented by several specimens and is closely allied to if not identical with P. quadraticeps, Grube; it agrees in every character except the number of bristles. Grube's species is said to have but five, whereas the Funafuti examples have six.

There are five worm tubes in the collection similar in shape and structure to those inhahited by Eunice tibiana, Pourt., but I failed to find any worms in them.

Order Oligochæta.
Family Perichætidae.

Perichæta grubei, Rosa.

Perichcæta Grubei, Rosa, Ann. d. ILK. Naturhist. Hofmus., vi. 1891, p. 395, pl. xiii., fig. 4a, 4b.

page 393

Two specimens appear to belong to this species, they are not in a good state of preservation and it is impossible to make out some of the specific characters.

Perichæta SP.

There are two specimens of another species of Perichæta probably introduced into the island. The only perfect example is 7·5 cm, in length, the segments are one hundred in number, the / shaped setae are 0·2 mm. in length, and number about 50 per segment. The dorsal and anterior spermathecal pores if present are very small, I failed to find them with a lens. The clitellum occupies the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth segments, the female pore is situated in a line with the setae on segment fourteen. The male pores occur on the eighteenth segment, they are transversely elongate and papillose, each pore is about 1 mm. in length, and the distance between their inner margins is about the same. The median ventral line bears eight papillae, there is one on each segment from fifteenth to twenty-first, the twenty-second being without; the remaining two are on segments twenty-three and twenty-four.

The dorsal surface is purplish-brown with green irridescent reflections, sides and under surface lighter.