Dr. Johnston on the British Nereides. 291 



Nereis pelagica, Linn. Syst. 1086. Bast. Opusc. Subsc. ii. 133. tab. 6. fig. 

 6. Turt. Gmel. iv. 86. — N. verrucosa, Mull. Zool. Dan. prod, 217. 

 no. 2628. — N. ccerulea, Penn. Brit. Zool. iv. 93. tab. 27. fig. sup. {edit. 

 1812.). Turt. Gmel. iv. 88. Turt. Brit. Faun. 135. Stew. Elem. i. 

 390, Bosc. Vers, i. 170. — Lycoris viridis, Johnston in Zool. Journ. iv. 

 419. — L. margaritacea, Ibid. 420; and in Mag. Nat. Hist. vii. 230. 



fi9- 42. 

 Hab. Under stones, between tide marks, common. 



Desc. Body from four to six, or, when fully extended, even 

 eight inches long, semicylindrical, of the thickness of a large 

 quill, tapered towards the tail, of a brown colour more or less 

 deeply tinted with metallic green, particularly near the head 

 and on the anterior margins or sides of the segments, and in cer- 

 tain lights iridescent. Head square, with four eyes, pointed 

 in front, on which are two small antennae ; palpi much larger, 

 two-jointed, the apical joint minute : tentacular cirri in four 

 pairs, greenish, setaceous, the superior reaching to the margin 

 of the fourth segment and longer by a third than the second 

 pair, which again are nearly twice the length of the inferior 

 pairs : mouth inferior, with a large cylindrical protrusile pro- 

 boscis divided into two portions by a circular fold, armed 

 with two strong jaws, around which are placed, on as many 

 swellings, six distinct patches of small black prickles, the side 

 patches larger than the others ; two still smaller patches are 

 situated just under the projecting lobe of the head, while at 

 the very base of the proboscis we find a band of similar 

 prickles, some larger than others, arranged in several irregu- 

 lar series : jaws falcate, horn-coloured at their insertions, the 

 upper half dark brown with six strong serratures on the inner 

 edge, the apex forming a seventh : first segment footless, twice 

 as large as the following, scored with faint whitish lines or 

 sometimes spotted ; and oblique lines of the same kind may 

 be seen, with a magnifier, on the sides of the other seg- 

 ments, of which, in a large specimen, there were 1 23, smooth, 

 excepting that across the front margin of a few of the anterior 

 segments a line of minute granules is very often visible : feet 

 nearly all alike, the cirri short, the terminal or branchial lo- 

 bules conical, nearly equal on the anterior feet, but towards the 

 middle of the body the superior becomes larger and more pro- 

 minent than either of the others ; setigerous tubercles small, 



y 2 



