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Show 312 MR. CYRIL CROSSLAND ON THE [Feb. 16, species and E. antennata that these structures afford no certain means for their separation, The size and distribution of the gills form a striking likeness to E. indica. The seta? are like those of E. indica in the bent, bluntly pointed termination of the acicula, absence of a third hook to the compound setae of posterior feet, and the presence of three or even five of the trifid acicular setae in each foot. But the guard of the compound setae is not produced to a point beyond the hooks in the way which is so characteristic of E. indica. The young specimen, less than 1 m m . broad, referred to above is but doubtfully identified as of this species. The prostomium is quite undivided in front, but the tentacles are very deeply an-nulated. Simple gills, as long as the dorsal cirri, occur on feet 6 to 10 only. The seta? are of the antennata type. A very nearly allied species is described by Ehlers (Florida Anneliden), named E. rubra by Grube (Annulata. Oerstediana). The jaws, however, are delicate plates and the acicular seta is sometimes bidentate. EUXICE AXTEXXATA Sav. (Plate XXII. figs. 1-7.) Eunice antennata Ehlers, Ostafricanische Borstenwiirmer, Nachr. Ges. Gott. 1897. E.flaccida Grube, Anneliden des Rothen Meeres, Monatsb. d. k. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1869 ; (travier, Nouv. Arch, du Museum de Paris, 1900. E. torresiensis McL, 'Challenger' Reports, xii. p. 270. E. elseyi Baird, M c L torn. cit. p. 286. *E. paucibranchiata Grube. The identity of this common species with Grube's E.flaccida is rendered certain by the full description of specimens from the same locality by Gravier. Although Ehlers does not give reasons for his identification of the specimens from Zanzibar which he examined with Savigny's E. antennata from the Gulf of Suez, it is evident that he is dealing with the same species again, so that the circumstantial evidence for the identity of the two amounts to a practical certainty. Savigny's description taken by itself is hardly sufficient, as he does not describe the setae nor the jaw-plates with enough care. The figures of the head, feet and gills, and general body-form can, howTever, hardly be surpassed. The abundance of large specimens of this species in East Africa. forms a contrast with its comparative rarity in the Maldives, whence only two full-growai specimens were obtained. This difference is probably connected with the habitat (which, for the African specimens, is given below), and it is conceivable that a dwarf variety has been evolved in the latter locality. In Ehren- * I owe the discovery of this synonym to the examination of a specimen lately lent to m e by Prof. Mcintosh, which was labelled by Prof. Grube himself and recorded from the Bass Straits. See note on E. bassensis, page 318. |