WOODWOKTH: THE PALOLO WORM. 



11 



On the day before the ' rising ' of the " Palolo " (the motusaga day of 

 the natives, see infra), a small annelid, headless like it, and the sexes 

 also distinguished by brown and greenish tints, makes its appearance in 

 large numbers. It is this small worm that in my preliminary paper 

 (1903) I ascribed to Lysidice falax, the name that Ehlers gave to the 

 Lysidice-head figured by Macdonald, and for so long believed to be the 



Figure 2. 



Longitudinal medium section of one of the ventral eye-spots of the " Palolo." After 

 Hesse. X 400. v. n. c, ventral nerve-cord ; p. m., pigment mass ; ep., epithelium. 



real head of the " Palolo." This small headless worm, a diminutive 

 "Palolo," does not belong to L. falax. I have complete specimens of 

 the latter which in no way exhibit any heteramorphosis or differentiation 

 between the anterior and posterior regions. A description of L. falax 

 is reserved for a subsequent paper on Eunicidae from the reefs of the 

 Pacific Islands. To the little " Palolo " of motusaga day I give the ten- 

 tative name Eunice dubia. The segments have the same general shape 

 as those of the "Palolo" and measure, in alcoholic material, about 0.75 

 mm ; in diameter, being slightly shorter than broad (Figs. 4 and 5). As 



