[From introduction]
The Polychaeta, of which this is the first part of a description, are contained in three collections from different parts of the Indian Ocean. The first two were made by Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner, F.R.S., of Caius College, Cambridge, the first in the Maldive Archipelago in the year 1899 and the second in the Seychelles and Chagos groups in 1905. Incorporated with these is a third made by Mr. Cyril Crossland, M.A., at Zanzibar in 1901-2. Part of the Eunicidae and the Chaetopteridae from Zanzibar and the Maldives have been described by Crossland, but absence from England has prevented him from prosecuting the work. The Annelids from Zanzibar were received late and only a single species is here noticed. The noteworthy feature of this assemblage of Amphinomids is the wealth of new species, though this might only be expected in the neglected state of the group. Previously collections from the Indian Ocean have only been made at Ceylon. In Willey's description of the Annelids collected by Professor Herdman, only two Amphinomids are mentioned. Of these it is interesting to observe that the widespread
Chloeia flava is absent from this extensive collection, though the genus is represented by four species. The re-discovery of
C. fusca, a single specimen of which was dredged by the 'Challenger' off the Moluccas, is also a noteworthy feature. A number of examples of
Eucarunculata grubei, a genus and species described in 1906 by Malaquin and Dehorne from the Malay Archipelago, were also obtained.
The Polychaeta of the Red Sea have now been very thoroughly described by Gravier. In a new species of
Amphinome from the Maldives we have a very close resemblance to
A. djiboutensis, Gravier, though the Red Sea collections were, as a whole, poor in Amphinomids.
