A RECORD OF RANDIELLA FROM NEW-CALEDONIA, THE FIRST KNOWN OCCURRENCE OF THE MARINE INTERSTITIAL FAMILY RANDIELLIDAE (ANNELIDA, OLIGOCHAETA)IN THE SOUTH-PACIFIC OCEAN

Five specimens morphologically indistinguishable from Randiella cariba ea Erseus and Strehlow, 1986, previously known only from the Caribbean in the Atlantic Ocean, are reported from a sandy beach at Touhou, New Caledonia. The new material reveals that R. caribaea and probably als o the closely related R minuta Erseus and Strehlow, 1986 have dorsal s permathecae, an assumedly apomorphic condition vis-a-vis the lateral s permathecae of the other species of Randiellidae. The number and posit ion of the gonads in this family are unclear, but the new material of R. caribaea appears to have at least one testis in segment X and one o vary in segment XII.