142 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. [Bull. 



appeared from preserved specimens. Individuals of this species 

 are usually smaller than those of 5\ mhcerens, fully mature spec- 

 imens rarely measuring much over 4 inches in length and % 

 inch in diameter. 



The body is slender and cylindrical, with a crown of delicate 

 tentacles at the anterior end. It is, as in the preceding species, 

 very fragile. The animal is prone to break up the posterior 

 portion of its body into many pieces when removed from its 

 burrows. The color is pink, pale red, or sometimes fairly deep 

 red, occasionally with a tinge of yellow. The color is mainly 

 due to deep red granules of pigment scattered over the integument, 

 particularly in the anterior portion of the body. When con- 

 tracted, the color naturally becomes more intense than when 

 extended. When sexually mature the filamentous gonads are 

 conspicuous through the delicate body walls. 



This species ranges from Massachusetts Bay to Long Island 

 Sound, and is very abundant at Bermuda. Although it is locally 

 distributed, it is very common in certain places. 



The sexual products are ripe in summer, the genital glands 

 at that time filling the anterior portions of the body, and plainly 

 visible through the translucent body walls. Occasionally the 

 eggs may be artificially fertilized and reared to the stage of free- 

 swimming larvae, but for some unknown reason the majority of 

 attempts at artificial fertilization have been unsuccessful. 



Its habits are somewhat different from those of Synapta 

 inh&rens, for this species is more commonly found in coarse 

 gravel and beneath and between stones. It sometimes occurs in 

 sand. In certain localities specimens may be most easily obtained 

 by turning over the stones beneath which the animals live. It 

 occurs both between tides and below low-water mark. 



The anatomical peculiarities which distinguish this species 

 from Synapta inhcerens are fully discussed by Clark.* 



Each of the twelve tentacles has usually but two or three 

 pairs of .digits (Plate XXIX, figs, i and 2). The calcareous 

 deposits in the tentacles are very irregular, much branched, or 

 perforated, while those in the longitudinal muscles are irregular 

 or incomplete rings (Fig. 29). 



The Synaptas of N. E. Coast. Bull. U. S. Fish Commission, 1899. 



