Description

“Vermiliopsis glacialis n.sp.

 

(Fig. 27.)

 

Sta. 30. 66° 48' S., 71° 24' E, off Princess Elizabeth Land, T M L, 540 m. (1).

 

The specimen has the abdomen much damaged, and I cannot count the number of chaetigers. It measures 11 mm. to the end of the thorax by 1 mm., the gills occupying 6 mm. of its length. There is no colour. There are about 15 pairs of branchiae with short filiform tips. The palmar membrane is low. The operculum (fig. 27a) is a soft pyriform structure with a flat calcareous top. It is borne on a flattened, wrinkled pedicle without processes. The collar is high and tri­lobed, for there are two lateral lobes and a very large ventral lobe. The thoracic membrane is low and continued to the end of the thorax. There are seven thoracic chaetigers.

 

The collar bristles (fig. 27b) are simple capillary bristles, striate or very feebly spinous along one edge.

 

The bristles of the remaining thoracic segments are similar to the collar bristles, with the addition that at any rate in the hinder thoracic segments Apomatus-bristles are present. The thoracic hooks (fig. 27c) have 7-8 teeth, of which the basal is the most prominent. The abdo­minal bristles (fig. 27d) are geniculate and denticulated. The abdomen is too much damaged for me to discover whether capillary bristles are present in the hinder region. The abdominal hooks are smaller than the thoracic, but have about the same number of teeth. The tube (fig. 27e) is fixed throughout its length to the substratum. It has three longitudinal keels, one median dor­sal, and two dorso-lateral.

 

The only other species of this genus that has a calcareous as opposed to a horny top to its operculum is the Mediterranean V. richardi Fauvel. The operculum in the latter species has a crenate top, and also differs in other characters.”

 

(Monro, 1939)