Willey, Arthur. (1905). Report on the Polychaeta collected by Professor Herdman, at Ceylon, in 1902. Report to the Government of Ceylon on the Pearl Oyster Fisheries of the Gulf of Manaar by W.A. Herdman, with supplementary reports upon the Marine Biology of Ceylon, by Other Naturalists. Part IV. Supplementary Reports. 30: 243-324, plates I-VIII.
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Willey, Arthur
1905
Report on the Polychaeta collected by Professor Herdman, at Ceylon, in 1902.
Report to the Government of Ceylon on the Pearl Oyster Fisheries of the Gulf of Manaar by W.A. Herdman, with supplementary reports upon the Marine Biology of Ceylon, by Other Naturalists. Part IV. Supplementary Reports
[Introduction as follows:]
This collection of Polychseta is the most extensive which has been brought together from the coast of Ceylon. There are only three older collections of any magnitude from Ceylon upon which reports have been published, namely, that of Schmarda, worked out by the traveller himself and published in 1861 ('Neue Wirbellose Thiere'); a small series gathered by Mr. Holdsworth and described by Grube in 1874 ('P. Zool. Soc., London'); lastly, another small series collected by Dr. Hans Driesch and described by Michaelsen in 1892 ('J. B. Hamb. Anst.,' ix. 2). Of these older collections the most important was the Schmarda collection, which included the discovery of the remarkable genera Gastrolepidia and Bhawania, the latter not being represented in Professor Herdman's collection.
The material was handed over to me at Professor Herdman's suggestion by Mr. James Hornell in September, 1904. A further consignment which had been taken to England, consisting mostly, but not entirely, of duplicates of some of the species contained in the first set, was sent out to me by Professor Herdman. These had also passed through the hands of Mr. Arnold T. Watson, who kindly forwarded to me such notes and drawings as he had made, some of the latter being reproduced on Plate VIII. A species of Polydora which attacks the pearl oyster was subsequently forwarded by Mr. Hornell.
Some new facts of systematic importance relating to previously described species are recorded here. Among the species described as new are some of considerable interest, e.g., Autolytus orientalis, Branchiomma quadrioculatum, Ceratonereis falcaria, Grymaea cespitosa, Halosydna zeylanica, Leprea inversa, Paramarphysa orientalis, Serpula watsoni, Thalenessa stylolepis.
The occurrence of Onuphis conchylega and the recovery of Harmothoe dictyophora are also noteworthy features of the collection.
