Populations of the spirorbid Pileolaria berkeleyana ( = P. rosepigmentata) are recorded in harbours at Plymouth, Falmouth and Portsmouth and of three similarly abundant serpulids, Filogranula calyculata and Metavermilia multicristata at Abereiddy and Vermiliopsis striaticeps at Falmouth. Ship-borne introductions may well have occurred but the Abereiddy serpulids have more probably come from undiscovered populations nearby, in areas too rocky and deep for easy sampling.INTRODUCTIONThree apparently exotic species of tubeworms, a spirorbid and two serpulids, have been established for at least five years in aquarium tanks at the Portsmouth Polytechnic Marine Laboratory. The tanks receive a continuous flow of unfiltered sea water, which is pumped from Langstone Harbour via a header tank, with little if any change in temperature. They contain many slate slabs from a flooded quarry (at Abereiddy, in South Wales), which had been opened to the sea in 1932 and is used as a harbour for small boats. The most recent transfer of slates to Portsmouth was in 1972. The slates were brought in because they bore populations of a native spirorbid (Thorp, 1975), but the associated fauna was not closely studied at that time because a general account of Abereiddy quarry and its fauna was being prepared by Hiscock & Hoare (1975).The exotic serpulids occurred particularly on the undersides of the slates, but had not been noted by Hiscock & Hoare, nor in any other British fauna list. They also occurred on the underside of a disused heater/cooler plate supporting the slates in one of the tanks, which indicated that they had been breeding in that tank.
Brumptiana lineata n.gen. et sp., from oro-nasal region of Raja, has a subcylindrical body, 2 pairs of eyes, 13 or 14 annuli per mid-body somite, 12 pairs of small pulsatile vesicles, 5 postcaecal fenestrae, 5 or 6 pairs of testes, a large muscular atrium with accessory glands, a thick-walled vagina and no receptaculum, conducting tissue or spermatheca.
Collecting water from rock pools just above rising tides, usually in winter and spring, yielded 1412 Lipophrys pholis, 255 Pholis gunnellus and 29 Coryphoblennius galerita, bearing respectively 172, 8 and 1 Oceanobdella blennii, 744 Taurulus bubalis bearing six Oceanobdella microstoma and 14 Sanguinothus pinnarum, and a Myoxocephalus scorpius with a single O. microstoma; fishes of 23 other species totalled 1243, but none bore leeches externally. Oceanobdella blennii was found mainly in February and March (some in gill chambers), at temperatures generally below 8°C, with lower numbers (all external) in April and May and none later. Infestation was highest in Northumberland. Leeches on P. gunnellus were smaller than those on L. pholis, which they would not attack. They were confined to Northumberland and Scotland, where L. pholis was scarcer. The southern limit of O. blennii seemed to be in north Cornwall, but O. microstoma, though more stenothermal, extends from the Arctic to south Devon, its hosts living mostly subtidally. It is hidden under the chin of Cottidae, whereas S. pinnarum is easily seen on the fins. Abundance in south-west Britain of the ‘cleaner fish’ Crenilabrus melops may explain why S. pinnarum, though common in Scotland and tolerant of summer temperatures, is scarce in Anglesey and not found further south.
The genus Circeis St-Joseph was based upon C. armoricana St-Joseph (1894), but Caullery & Mesnil (1897) suggested that the latter is a mere variety of Spirorbis spirillum (L.), which Chamberlin (1919) therefore regarded as the type of the genus. These two species are indeed closely related to each other, but distinguished by the sculpturing of the collar setae (Knight-Jones, Knight-Jones & Al-Ogily, 1975). They belong to a genus which is very distinct from Spirorbis, as was pointed out by Knight-Jones, Knight-Jones & Kawahara (1975), who regarded C. armoricana as the type species.
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