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Show 974 ME. W. M. THOMSON ON A BRANCHIATE [Dec. 18, 2. An Account of a Large Branchiate Polynoid from New Zealand, Lepidonotus giganteus Kirk. By W . MALCOLM THOMSON, B.A. (N.Z.). With an Introduction by Professor W. BLAXLAND BENHAM, D.SC, M.A., F.Z.S., Otago University. [Eeceived November 19, 1900.] (Plates LX.-LXII.) INTRODUCTION. By Prof. BENHAM. In introducing to the zoological world a new author, I think it is only just, both to members of the Society and to m y pupil, Mr. Thomson, to state that, though the paper has been written and the drawings executed by him, I have throughout constantly supervised his work, so that I can confirm all his statements of fact, to which, too, I have here and there added a note. In the course of an examination of a collection of Annelids obtained during a recent experimental trawling expedition, carried out by the Fisheries Department of the N e w Zealand Government- during which provision was generously made for the collection of zoological material,-I had occasion to identify a large species of Lepidonotus, the subject of the present paper. I soon discovered that this Lepidonotus giganteus of Kirk [8] had been previously described under the name Aphrodita squamosa by Quatrefages many years before; and a question arises as to the strict application of the laws of nomenclature. The commonest Polynoid on the coasts of Britain is L. squam-atus L.; and it appears to m e that on the grounds of clearness and convenience-which, after all, are the foundations of any system of nomenclature-it would be desirable to depart in this instance from the strict letter of a law which, if applied, might lead to some confusiou between the old established L. squamatus L. and the N e w Zealand species L. squamosus Q. It is true that in faunistic accounts these two names would probably never actually clash, for the British species does not occur on the coasts of N e w Zealand. But it is not impossible that L. squamosus may occur in Arctic seas, side by side wlthL. squamatus; for in a collection of Polvnoids made within the Arctic circle, and handed to m e by Prof. D'Arcy Thompson (for identification- which, however, I had to return to him unidentified, on leaving Oxford), I remember a large specimen of about the same size and colour as the subject of the present note. But as I have no literature here upon Arctic Annelids, I a m unable to ascertain whether the Arctic species is identical with our Southern form; yet, if the " Bipolar Theory " be true, it is not impossible that it may be: then confusion between the two names would arise. I have therefore retained the name given by Kirk, who |
