ANTARCTIC BENTHOS
56
a sign of the productivity and diversity of the area. I n the general
section of this report Hartman presents a useful summary famiIy by
family of the polychaetes from the area studied. The four pages of
summary are so compactly presented that further compression would
destroy any value. Hartman also gives station lists and a short general
account of the polychaetes from each of 19 general areas.
Harris (1969) has worked on the systematics of the serpulid genus
Spirorbis in the South American sector of Antarctica and has discussed
the biogeography of the group. Six species are now known from this
sector of the Antarctic. Spirorbis digitus Harris and S. pixelli Harris
occur off South Georgia, S . pixelli and S. indicus Sterzinger off the
South Orkneys, 8. moerchi Levinsen off the Antarctic Peninsula and S.
aggregatus Caullery and Mesnil and S. nordenskjoldi Ehlers from Petermann Island. Of these 8. nordemkjoldi is known also from East Antarctica and from Bouvet Island, as well as from the Magellan region.
S. digitus and S. pixelli appear to be endemic to this area, and S.
aggregatus occurs also at the Falklands and on the Patagonian shelf.
But 8. indicus is known elsewhere from Suez while S. rnoerchi is recorded
from the Gulf of Mexico and from the Bay of Naples. One would expect
species of Spirorbis to have a wide distribution since they are easily
carried by drifting algae and many forms live attached to algal fronds.
However, one would expect such wide-ranging forms in the Southern
Hemisphere to have a circum-Antarctic distribution. Evidently the
distribution of Spirorbis is too sporadically known at present for useful
biogeographical discussion.
Two general points concerning the Antarctic polychaete fauna were
raised by Gravier (1911~). Brooding of the eggs takes place in
several different genera which do not show the habit in warmer seas.
Examples are Eteone gainii Gravier and Flabelligera rnundata Gravier .
Eteone gainii may be the same as Mystides notialis Ehlers (Hartman,
1964).
Gigantism amongst the polychaetes also crops up in different families, e.g. Trypanosyllis gigantea (McIntosh), Laetmtonice producta
Grube and Flabelligera mundata.
I. Priapulida
The priapulids have aroused great interest in the Antarctic because
of the supposed evidence which they supply for the theory of bipolarity
(ThBel, 1911). Expedition results on the group have been written by
Shipley (1902), Thee1 (1911), Fischer (1921), Benham (1922), and
Stephen (1941). Revisions of the group by Lang (1961) and more
recently by Murina and Starobogatov (1961) and van der Land (1970)
56
a sign of the productivity and diversity of the area. I n the general
section of this report Hartman presents a useful summary famiIy by
family of the polychaetes from the area studied. The four pages of
summary are so compactly presented that further compression would
destroy any value. Hartman also gives station lists and a short general
account of the polychaetes from each of 19 general areas.
Harris (1969) has worked on the systematics of the serpulid genus
Spirorbis in the South American sector of Antarctica and has discussed
the biogeography of the group. Six species are now known from this
sector of the Antarctic. Spirorbis digitus Harris and S. pixelli Harris
occur off South Georgia, S . pixelli and S. indicus Sterzinger off the
South Orkneys, 8. moerchi Levinsen off the Antarctic Peninsula and S.
aggregatus Caullery and Mesnil and S. nordenskjoldi Ehlers from Petermann Island. Of these 8. nordemkjoldi is known also from East Antarctica and from Bouvet Island, as well as from the Magellan region.
S. digitus and S. pixelli appear to be endemic to this area, and S.
aggregatus occurs also at the Falklands and on the Patagonian shelf.
But 8. indicus is known elsewhere from Suez while S. rnoerchi is recorded
from the Gulf of Mexico and from the Bay of Naples. One would expect
species of Spirorbis to have a wide distribution since they are easily
carried by drifting algae and many forms live attached to algal fronds.
However, one would expect such wide-ranging forms in the Southern
Hemisphere to have a circum-Antarctic distribution. Evidently the
distribution of Spirorbis is too sporadically known at present for useful
biogeographical discussion.
Two general points concerning the Antarctic polychaete fauna were
raised by Gravier (1911~). Brooding of the eggs takes place in
several different genera which do not show the habit in warmer seas.
Examples are Eteone gainii Gravier and Flabelligera rnundata Gravier .
Eteone gainii may be the same as Mystides notialis Ehlers (Hartman,
1964).
Gigantism amongst the polychaetes also crops up in different families, e.g. Trypanosyllis gigantea (McIntosh), Laetmtonice producta
Grube and Flabelligera mundata.
I. Priapulida
The priapulids have aroused great interest in the Antarctic because
of the supposed evidence which they supply for the theory of bipolarity
(ThBel, 1911). Expedition results on the group have been written by
Shipley (1902), Thee1 (1911), Fischer (1921), Benham (1922), and
Stephen (1941). Revisions of the group by Lang (1961) and more
recently by Murina and Starobogatov (1961) and van der Land (1970)