336 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



mal is firmly held in place by its thoracic feet. Annates des 

 /Sciences JVatnrelles, July 15, 1876. 



HABITS AND ANATOMY OP A NEREID WOEM. 



The habits, but more particularly the anatomy, oi Nereis 

 vii'ois^ a common worm found between tide marks on the 

 coast of New England, have been studied by Mr. F. M. Turn- 

 bull. This woTni grows to the length of eighteen inches or 

 more, and is commonly met with in digging clams. It is 

 very active and voracious, feeding on other worms, but over- 

 looking its own immediate relatives. It suddenly thrusts out 

 its proboscis and seizes its prey with the two powerful jaws, 

 then withdrawing the proboscis, the jaws closing at the same 

 time. In this way it will tear large pieces from the body of 

 its victim, being able at one bite to cut in two a worm of its 

 own size. The tautog, scup, and other fishes dig them out 

 of the sand and devour them eagerly. But at certain times, 

 especially at night, they leave their burrows, and swim about 

 like eels or snakes, in large numbers, and at such times fall 

 an easy prey to many kinds of fishes. This habit seems to 

 be connected with the season of reproduction. Tnrnbull's 

 account of the anatomy of the nervous and circulatory sys- 

 tem gives the best description yet published in this country 

 of the structure of these worms, scarcely any thing, indeed, 

 having been accomplished in this direction by American zo- 

 otomists. Trans. Conn. Academy., August. 



DIGESTION IN MYEIAPODS. 



In an elaborate memoir of ninety-four pages in quarto, ac- 

 companied by three well-filled plates, Professor Plateau de- 

 scribes the anatomy, gross and minute, of the Thousand-legs 

 and Centipedes {JMyriapodci) of Belgium, and the phenomena 

 of digestion. Myriapods are either carnivorous or feed on 

 vegetable matter. The Centipedes ( Chilopoda) feed on liv- 

 ing animals, such as flies and mosquitoes, as in the case of the 

 common i^7Ao^^w5, while Cryptops feed on earth-worms, other 

 myriapods (6'^eopA^7^/s), spiders, and larvse, while allied forms 

 devour Podurce. They hold them between their jaws, and 

 kill them by the poison which pours into the double wound 

 produced by the points of the jaws. The effects of the poi- 

 son of the Lithobiiis on the domestic fly are almost as rapid as 



