102 Bulletin Vanderbilt Marine Museum, Vol. VII 



lowish and bluish iridescence; the branchia and proboscis are 

 reddish ; the notopodial setae golden yellow." 



Habitat : It occurred in the third and fourth subregions of the 

 littoral zone, living in holes in the hard sand, which it had exca- 

 vated to a length of two feet. These holes were exactly adapted 

 in width to the thickness of the animal, and were not furnished 

 with a lining of any kind. They extended obliquely downward, 

 being at first perpendicular, but curving so as to become almost 

 horizontal ; the lower extremity was about one foot below the sur- 

 face. TTie locality where they were found was not exposed to the 

 action of breakers, but was within the harbor, so that a slight 

 deposit of mud covered the sand in which they lived. All the 

 specimens were found in their holes, with the anterior extremity 

 downward, and when taken, were trying to escape by digging still 

 further into the sand, which is effected by continued rapid evolu- 

 tions of the proboscis. The specimens, when handled, gave out a 

 greenish colouring matter, which stains the skin in such a manner 

 that it cannot be removed for many days. (Stimpson) . 



In 1890, Mr. J. E. Ives reported the third finding of Arenicola 

 cristata within the United States coast ; his specimens were taken 

 from a large colony concealed within the sand, along the edge of a 

 pool of water formed by the washing over of the sea, at Anglesea, 

 New Jersey. 



All writers concur in stating that this species is of rare occur- 

 rence at Naples; Lo Bianco (1899) reported that it occurs there 

 chiefly among decaying matter in the Porto mercantile, breeding 

 from June to August. 



Eggs and larvae : In his type description Stimpson states ; 

 "During the latter part of March, we frequently observed in and 

 about the holes of these worms great quantities of a soft trans- 

 parent jelly, filled with minute, brownish specks, which proved 

 to be eggs." 



In 1883, Dr. Edmund B. Wilson, of Johns Hopkins University 

 faculty, published a valuable, well illustrated paper describing 

 his observations on egg-masses and larval stages of Arenicola 

 cristata, made during two seasons' work at the Chesapeake Bay 

 Zoological Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, He stated : 



"The eggs are embedded in huge gelatinous masses, which as- 

 sume various forms as they are swayed to and fro by the tide. 

 A common form is irregularly cylindrical, three or four feet long 



