Themiste (Lagenopsis) Edmonds, 1980

Acd, 2000, Sipuncula from Hainan Island (China), Journal of Natural History 34, pp. 2187-2207 : 2192-2194

Subgenus Themiste (Lagenopsis) Edmonds, 1980 Themiste (Lagenopsis) lageniformi s (Baird, 1868)

Material. Lingchang, 7 April 1992, one specimen; Lingchang, 10 April 1992, three specimens; Meixia, 8 April 1992, one specimen; Qukou, 13 March 1992, six specimens; Qukou, 14 March 1992, 46 specimens; Shalao, 6 April 1992, one specimen. Description. Trunk 4±16 mm long and 1±7 mm wide. Introvert 2±6 mm in length. The body, pear-shaped, shows orange nuance coloration, becoming darker towards both trunk ends. Small scattered papillae are present all over the trunk, and bands of longitudinal musculature are discernible by translucence. Hooks are absent. Terminal tentacles arise from tentacular branches and stems. Behind the tentacles a purple pigmented collar-like band is visible around the introvert. The contractile vessel carries villi in numbers greater than 40. Two retractors are inserted in the body wall at a short distance from the posterior trunk end. Spindle muscle does not insert in the body wall posteriorly.

Discussion. The small size (<35 mm) of the specimens, the presence of more than 40 villi in the contractile vessel, the absence of hooks and the presence of a purple pigmented introvert collar must be pointed out as diagnostic characters. In this respect, the specimens investigated show a complete range of coloration, which

is also visible in the pigmentation of the body wall 2014 The species resembles T. (Lagenopsis) minor (Ikeda., 1904) , although it diOEers

February the

from from hooks China it in. the None, a absence circumstance of the of specimens hooks which on, compels not its even introvert us the carefully smallest. Both to species, possesses observe appear the them character as. recorded of Themiste lageniformis is distributed widely, being frequent in the western Paci®c

14

Ocean from Japan to Australia, in the Indian Ocean and also in various localities

34

: of Africa and America

. In the area investigated, the species was previously recorded

02 from Indochina by Leroy (1942), from Zhanjiang (South China) by Murina (1964)

at

] and from the South China Sea by Li et al. (1992b); furthermore, Li (1983, 1984)

Bath collected it from Hainan Island.

of

University Family

Subgenus

PHASCOLOSOMATIDAE

Phascolosoma

Genus Phascolosoma

(Phascolosoma

Leuckart Stephen

)

, and

Leuckart

1828 Edmonds

, 1828

, 1972

[

by Phascolosoma (Phascolosoma) albolineatum (Baird, 1868)

Downloaded end trunk,

Material Description forming. Papillae. a. Dadonghai reddish distributed Trunk band 40 Bay over mm. Hooks, 29 the long March, entire 70 and m m 1992 2 trunk tall mm, and one and wide arranged specimen crowded. Introvert in. around fewer shorter than the than 40 anterior rings the, show their tips bent at an angle greater than 90ss (®gure 3a). Internally, there is a visible streak and a triangle in the convex portion of the hook. Four retractors, two nephridia shorter than half the length of the trunk, and longitudinal muscles in bands. Discussion. The diagnostic character of this species is the shape of its hooks, which have a great tip angle (> 90ss) and a large bulge on the concave side. This is the principal way to separate this species from P. (P.) scolops (Selenka and de Man, 1883) , which shows great resemblance. The arrangement of the hook rings in numbers fewer than 50, and the size of the hooks always greater than 25 m m, are also important. In the case of the specimen investigated, its hooks are a bit taller than the descriptions published in the literature.

The species shows a wide distribution in the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean and the Western Paci®c Ocean in spite of not being a common species. It has been recorded several times close to Hainan, in Indochina by Leroy (1942), in the Xisha Islands by Li (1982), on the coasts of South China by Li (1989), in the South China

2014 February 14 34: 02 at] Bath of University [by Downloaded Sea by Li et al. (1992b), and on the coasts of Vietnam by Murina (1989). The present specimen, which represents the ®rst record for Hainan, was found in the interior of a rock.