428 Dr. Johnston on the British Aphroditacea. 



proboscis with rudimentary and cartilaginous jaws or 

 none; antenna one only; palpi two, large; eyes two. 

 (Scales concealed in the British species.) 



2. Polynoe. Body squamous, the scales exposed and al- 

 ternating with the superior cirri ; proboscis with corneous 

 jaws; antennae three, unequal; palpi two, large; eyes 

 four. 



3. Phol.oe. Body squamous, the scales placed over every 

 alternate foot ; cirri none or rudimentary ; proboscis with 

 four corneous jaws, the orifice plain ; antennae five un- 

 equal, distinct ; palpi two, large ; eyes two. 



4. Sigalion. Body squamous, the scales and superior 

 cirri coexistent on the same feet, the former placed over 

 every alternate foot until the twenty-seventh segment, 

 whence they follow uninterruptedly to the end of the 

 body ; proboscis with corneous jaws ; antennae rudi- 

 mentary ; palpi large ; eyes none. 



1. Aphrodita*, Linnceus. 

 The Aphrodita are broader and more oviform than the rest 

 of this family, and the segments of the body do not exceed 

 thirty-nine. The head, more or less concealed by the scales 

 or by the bristles, carries two somewhat pedunculated eyes, 

 and a solitary small subulate antenna, but the palpi are com- 

 paratively very large. The orifice of the proboscis is encircled 

 with penicillate tentacula and armed in general with thin car- 

 tilaginous jaws. The feet are distinctly bifid, and garnished 

 with three bundles of bristles, two of which belong to the 

 dorsal, and the third to the ventral branch ; the first pair are 

 small and furnished with long tentacular cirri ; but the pos- 

 terior do not differ observably from the rest. The bristles of 

 the dorsal branch are sometimes very complicated ; those of 

 the ventral simple or forked : the cirri are subulate, — the in- 

 ferior small, the superior long. The scales are large, and, 

 in our native species, concealed by a coarse felt formed by the 

 bristles of the dorsal branch of the feet ; there are fifteen pairs 



* Aphrodite — the Greek name of Venus. In its application to a sea-worm, 

 there may be some allusion to the supposed derivation from cl<P(>6$, " foam 

 of the sea." Hesiod calls Venus d<P(>oyhf<oc, " foam- sprung." 



