290 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [April, 



The branchial barbs are somewhat longer — four or five times the 

 diameter of the rachises and diminished but slightly toward the distal 

 end — and the dorsal branchial lappet is very prominent. Both speci- 

 mens are filled with nearly mature eggs. One has nine setigerous 

 segments, the other only six and the thorax shorter than the gills. 

 The first has the eye-spots scattered through a wide zone and occa- 

 sionally more than one on a rachis ; the other has a single nearly black 

 eye-spot proximad of the middle on most of the middle rachises. 

 Both have the gills otherwise colorless. 



The tubes form a cluster of three and are nearly colorless, stiff and 

 hard and covered with an incrustation of fine sand. Two other empty 

 tubes dredged near the same locality probably also belong to this 

 species. 



SERPULID^E. 

 Protula superba sp. nov. (Plate IX, figs. 64, 65). 



The least contracted specimen of this magnificent serpulid has the 

 body 88 mm. long and the contracted gill-crowns 37 mm. long; length 

 of thorax measured along venter of mantle 37 mm. ; width of thorax 

 at anterior end 16 mm., at posterior end 12 mm. ; depth at latter point 

 7 mm. ; width of abdomen at middle 10 mm. ; depth at same point 9 

 mm.; length of branchial base 9 mm.; length of one of the longest 

 rachises 23 mm. Number of thoracic segments 8 (7 setigerous), of 

 abdominal segments 115-120. Another specimen is even larger but 

 more contracted. 



The contracted branchial crowns form a pair of great compact 

 brushes or plumes, the base and axis of which is a high spiral perma- 

 nently wound into seven or eight close turns, stout and of firm texture 

 throughout and triangular in section. They are readily detached, 

 leaving a triangular scar on each side of the mouth. Leaving a short 

 pedicel of attachment the branchiferous spiral begins on the dorsal 

 side and bears in the one cotype on which they were counted no less 

 than 320 radioles in a closely crowded series on each side. The basal 

 ones are the longest and they diminish in length regularly to the apex 

 at a rate that indicates that their tips reach a uniform level in full 

 extension. A rather thick interbranchial membrane is connected 

 with the outer faces of the basal ends of the rachises and unites them 

 for about one-fifth of their length. The rachises are compressed 

 triangular with the base directed outward and the apex toward the 

 center; narrow membranous borders are appended to the basal 

 angles and reach from the interbranchial membrane nearly to their 



