PROC. BIOL. SOC. WASH. 98(1), 1985, pp. 158-176 THE OLIGOCHAETA OF GEORGES BANK (NW ATLANTIC), WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF FOUR NEW SPECIES Dale Davis Abstract.— Thirty-two oligochaete species are recorded from benthic grab sam-ples taken southeast of Massachusetts (Georges Bank). Taxonomic notes are pro-vided for all species not previously dealt with in earlier papers (Erseus and Davis 1984; Erseus 1984a; Davis 1984). Four of the species, Phallodrilus dorsosper-matheca, Phallodrilus christen, Adelodrilus bacrionis, and Uniporodrilus vestigium are new to science and described herein. Some aspects of sediment-species rela-tionships, life histories, and geographical distributions are discussed. During the Georges Bank Benthic Infauna Monitoring Program, 32 species of marine Oligochaeta were encountered (Table 1). Of these 32, 1 1 are known to be new species. All members of the genus Adelodrilus, except A. bacrionis, n.sp., from Georges Bank were previously treated by Erseus and Davis (1984). Several species of Phallodrilus have been dealt with by Erseus (1984a), and Olavius corn-uatus has been described by Davis (1984). Cook (1969, 1971) studied the Oligochaeta of Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts. His work was very thorough and is commonly used for reference when studying oligochaetes in shallow waters along the northeast coast of the U.S. Cook (1970a, b) also made significant contributions to the knowledge of deep-sea oligochaetes from the northwest Atlantic. Several other publications (Brinkhurst 1965, 1966; Brinkhurst and Jamieson 1971; Brinkhurst and Baker 1979; Lasserre 1971; Cook and Brinkhurst 1973) are useful for identification of marine oligochaetes from the northwest Atlantic, but are concerned again mostly with shallow-water forms. Only in the last few years have publications (Erseus 1979a, b, 1983a; Baker and Erseus 1979) dealt with the oligochaetes from the continental shelf of the northeast U.S. The material from the Georges Bank Monitoring Program provides a significant contribution to the knowledge of marine oligochaetes from this area. Materials and Methods All samples were taken in the course of the Georges Bank Benthic Infauna Monitoring Program performed by Battelle New England Marine Research Lab-oratory for the U.S. Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service (Final Report for year one available through the National Technical Information Service). Starting in July 1981, samples were taken in February, May, July, and November of each year through May of 1984. Samples were taken with a 0.04 m 2 Van Veen grab. The samples were subsequently sieved through a 300 ixm screen and fixed in 10% formalin. In the laboratory, the samples were resieved through a stack of 500 jum and 300 jtm screens and transferred into 70% isopro-panol for processing and storage. Oligochaete specimens were stained in Harris haematoxylon or paracarmine and mounted in permanent mounting media on
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