36 



The head is typical in regard to palpi, and the position of the 

 eyes, the posterior pair of which are nearer each other than 

 the anterior, and thus lie obliquely forward ;uid outward from 

 the posterior pair. The median tentacle is somewhat shorter 

 than the longest cirri in the example. The body is proportion- 

 ately stout, tapering posteriorly towards the tail, which ends in 

 two long cirri. The sides are lianked by the curved cirri, which 

 cling firmly to their bases, thus differing from the ordinary 

 forms, in which these organs are readily detached. They are 

 long, gently tapered, and distinctly articulated from base to 

 apex, the number of segments ranging from below 20, to 29 or 

 30. The setigerous region is somewhat elongate, with a bifid 

 tip, a small papilla at the end superiorly, and a group of stout 

 bristles, which are pale, slightly curved, dilated, bevelled at 

 the tip of the shaft, and furnished with a moderately elongated 

 terminal piece, which has a minutely bifid tip, after the manner 

 of Pionosyllis, and a spinous edge beneath. None of the 

 swimming bristles were present. 



The ventral cirrus extends fully as far as the tip of the 

 setigerous region. 



So far as observed, this form agrees with the British species, 

 though, perhaps, the bristles are less numerous. 



It is interestmg that a form first found at Lochmaddy, North 

 Uist, should stretch to the shores of South Africa. Langerhans, 

 however, procured no less than four species of the genus at 

 Madeira. 



Schmarda found at least nine representatives of the Syllids.^ 

 at the Cape, but it is not possible to identify any of them with 

 this form. His Syllis cJostcrobvaiicliia has jointed bristles with 

 an elongated bifid terminal piece, but the dorsal cirri are thick 

 and short. No other form described by him approaches it, 

 though several of his species had compound bristles with 

 bidentate tips. 



A single Syllidean {Syllis capcnsis) was obtained by the 

 "Challenger," at Station 141, south of the Cape of Good Hope, 

 in 98 fathoms, on a bottom of green sand. Though devoid of 

 the long capillary bristles Malmgren associated with the genus, 

 and having moniliform cirri, it would seem to approach 

 Pionosyllis very closely, indeed, in the proofs it was so termed. 

 In the structure of the compound bristles, it approaches the 

 present form, as it also does in the general structure of the 

 head, and in the absence of long simple bristles, but it diverges, 

 in so far, as its dorsal cirri have only eight or nine segments, 

 whereas, Pionosyllis malnigreiii has as many as 20 or 30. How 

 far age affects the number of these organs is, however, an open 

 question ; certainly the forms are nearly allied. 



