BY WILLIAM A. IIASWELL, M.A., B.9C. 263 



processes are shorter, and their aperture simple and wider than 

 in the male. I have never succeeded in finding ova in the act 

 of being discharged, but there can be no doubt that they pass 

 out b}' the same channel as the spermatozoa. The ova are 

 extremely viscous and very readily pass under the influence of a 

 slight pressure through an aperture much smaller than their 

 ordinary diameter. As already noticed, the ova in Pol 1/710 1^ undergo 

 the parlier stages of their development on the dorsal surface of 

 the mother under the protection of the elytra. In specimens of 

 Aniinoe prcedarn with matured sexual elements, the ventral border 

 of the base of the parapodium was provided with a line of very 

 long cilia, which curved round to the base of the ventral tubercle 

 and acted in such a manner that anything that might be discharged 

 through the ventral tubercle must have been driven upwards 

 towards the dorsal aspect ; both sides of the fissure between 

 adjacent parapodia were likewise clothed with similar, though 

 shorter cilia, the action of which was such as to receive and carry 

 upwards to the cavity beneath the elytra any light objects driven 

 within their reach by the first set. The object of this arrange- 

 ment would seem to be to carry upwards the ova, when discharged, 

 to the shelter of the elytra. 



Apertures have sometimes been described as occurring in the 

 walls of the parapodia in Polynoe, and through these it has been 

 supposed that the sexual products are discharged. Such apertures 

 do not occur in any species I have examined for them ; sliort 

 rows and rosettes of cilia often occur ; these are always set in 

 recti-linear or circular slits in the cuticle — the cilia being pro- 

 longations of the subcuticular layer — and in the case of the 

 rosettes this may produce the appearance of circular apertures. 

 I can only speak with certainty, however, of the absence of these 

 apertures in the species I have examined, during the breeding- 

 season ; it may be that at that time apertures which exist at 

 other seasons are closed to prevent the sexual products from 

 escaping by any but the proper channels and thus being lost. 

 R 



