254 SIPUNCULAOE.E. 



SIPUNCULIDIE. SIPUNCULACEM. 





JOHNSTONS SIPUNCULUS. 

 Sipwnculus Johnstoni. Forbes. 



Specific Character. — Body rough, with minute papillre ; posterior extremity 

 tapering to a point ; trunk smooth, nearly half the length of the body. 



This little species is one of the many discoveries of my 

 valued friend, Dr. Johnston, who found it at Berwick, 

 and to the pencil of his accomplished lady I am indebted 

 for the figure of it. He writes me regarding it, — " It is 

 not uncommon sometimes at the roots of corallines, lurk- 

 ing in the sand, the colour of which it resembles. It is 

 rarely, I should think, half an inch long, contracts and 

 lengthens itself, as is usual with the tribe, draws in the 

 anterior end, and extends it as a snail doth its horns, and 

 when it is fully extended there is an appearance of two 

 minute papillae at the orifice." 



Pallas, in his Miscellanea Zoologica, tab. x. figs. 7, 8, 9, 

 has figured two English Sipuncular worms, which nearly 

 approach the Sipunculus Johnstoni. The one he says 

 he found among sand on the coast of Sussex in the year 

 ] 762 ; the other he states is black, smooth, and capable 



