BY WILLIAM A. HASWELL, M.A., B.SC. 753 



The dorsal cirri (brauchite) of the anterior segments are stout 

 and short, but rather longer than the parapodia ; towards the 

 middle of the body they become much larger, compressed, leaf-like, 

 about a third of the breadth of the body. The parapodia contain 

 a bundle of about twelve slender, flexible, tapering setae, feathered 

 on one side near the apex, and towai'ds the ventral side three 

 shorter acute acicula. 



There are seven pairs of jaws, the first, the largest, without 

 teeth ; the second small, slender, acutely pointed ; the third 

 with five teeth, three large and two small ; the fourth with six 

 teeth ; the fifth with seven ; the sixth with six or seven ; the 

 seventh very long, narrow, untoothed. 



Specimens of this remarkable annelid are brought up, not 

 unfrequently, with the dredge from depths of a few fathoms in 

 Port Jackson. The genus has hitherto only contained one described 

 species — the Nereis parthenopeia of Delle Chiaje (1), afterwai-ds 

 described under the name of Halla by Costa. Judging from 

 Claparede's figures oiH. parthenopeia in the " Annelides chetopodes 

 du Golfe de Naples," the Austi^alian species is to be distinguished 

 from it by having the parapodia relatively more prominent, one 

 of its lobes (the ventral one) being much longer than the other, 

 and by the ventral cirrus being relatively shorter. The setse of 

 the European species also seem to want the long whip-like 

 extremities. 



The hypoderm consists of very irregular cellswith in tei-nal fibre-like 

 processes ; and there are no glands. The alimentary canal is distin- 

 guishable into tliree regions — a short pliarynx, a muscular dentary 

 region, and a rather narrow intestinal region — without marked con- 

 strictions. The two first divisions arelined with columnar stratified 

 epithelium without cilia. The epithelium of the intestine is com- 

 posed of large irregular cells witli, clear contents and small nuclei. 



(1) " Memorie sulla storia e notomia degli animali senza vertebre," III. 

 p. 164. 



