310 Mr. P. H. Gosse on new or little-known Marine Animals. 



The minuteness of the animal forbade my determining the nature 

 of the proboscis, or the form cf the bristles. 



Fam. AuRicoMADJS? 

 Genus Crossostoma (mihi). 



No distinct head ; no eyes ; upper margin of mouth set with 

 numerous cirri ; segments thirty, of which the anterior ones are 

 furnished with bristles, feet, and superior cirri ; inferior cirri 

 from the fourth segment to the tail ear-like, cleft; eight ten- 

 tacles on the second and third segments ; tail furnished with a 

 pair of minute styles. 



,,^, C. Midas (mihi). PI. VIII. figs. 7-12. 



Body 1| inch long, ^th of an inch wide in front, tapering to 

 tail, subcylindrical, flattened beneath, plump and glossy (fig. 7). 

 Mouth opening somewhat beneath, with a retractile lip, the 

 upper margin of which is fringed with numerous radiating cirri, 

 which are curled, white, slender, ciliated, and apparently tactile, 

 as they are frequently applied to the ground in an exploring 

 manner (figs. 7, 8), Immediately above this fringe are two oval 

 or reniform disks, which appear to occupy the place of eyes, but 

 are not coloured. 



The body is composed of thirty segments, which are very 

 distinct beneath, but, from the plumpness of the body above, the 

 annulation is almost obsolete there. Each segment, as far as 

 the eighteenth, is furnished, on each side, with a small cylin- 

 drical foot (fig. 10), which bears, above, a minute superior cirrus, 

 and is perforated at the tip to project a pencil of bristles, which 

 are long, slender, straight blades, drawn off to a fine point, 

 slightly curved (fig. 12). The pencil of the first segment is much 

 graduated, and is of the colour and appearance of burnished 

 gold ; those of the second and third segments are minute, and 

 these segments themselves are as it were fused together. They 

 give origin above to eight tentacles, which form a group of four 

 on each side, comparatively short, but graduated in length, thick, 

 cylindrico-conical, obtuse, with a dark core; these organs are 

 suberect, projecting and diverging (figs. 8, 9). 



At the fourth segment commences a series of organs, which 

 continues to the tail. They appear to be the inferior cirri of the 

 feet, but are separated by a distinct interval from the bristle- 

 bearing tubercles (fig. 10). In form they resemble the human 

 ear, at least as far as the middle of the body, whence they gra- 

 dually become more and more wart-like. They have a longitu- 

 dinal fissure near the tip, the orifice of which is protected by a 



