246 • L. N. G, RAMSAY. 



The length of the individuals ranges from 7 mm, to 35 mm., but the 

 majority are about 25 mm. long. 



As to colour, I examined live specimens from all three localities, and 

 these were practically colourless, except for blood-vessels and gut show- 

 ing through the semi-transparent body-wall. In examination some 

 months later, however, some specimens (preserved in alcohol) show a 

 slight band of brownish granular pigment across the dorsum of each seg- 

 ment, becoming more marked towards the posterior end of the animal. 

 This band of pigment is more or less continuous with glands which occur 

 on the base of the parapods, rather like those of N. dumerilii* 



Specimens of average size have 55 to 60 pairs of parapods ; the greatest 

 number noted was 66, the smallest, in a specimen barely 9 mm. long, 

 35 pairs. 



The body is fairly stout, tapering gradually towards the posterior end. 

 There is a tendency towards shortness in all the appendages. The general 

 form will best be realized by a glance at the figures, which are taken from 

 typical specimens (Plate I, Fig. 1). 



These worms, when placed in spirit, usually die with the proboscis 

 retracted, but I succeeded in preventing its retraction in about a dozen 

 specimens, obtained during my stay at Plymouth, by means of a pin 

 pressed behind the head while spirit was poured over the creature. (This 

 immensely facilitates the examination of small nereids.) The proboscis 

 is short and stout ; the maxillary division is quite smooth, but the basal 

 division possesses on the ventral side a row of 5 to 9 minute, soft, conical 

 papillae, perfectly colourless, in a transverse, even-spaced row towards 

 the anterior margin. These correspond in position to paragnaths of 

 groups VII, VIII. On the dorsal surface of the basal division a single 

 larger papilla of similar nature (corresponding to VI) exists on each side. 

 These papillae are small and very inconspicuous. It is very difficult to 

 distinguish them at all except when seen in profile, or when the light upon 

 them falls at a suitable angle. Fig. 1 shows in profile the two outer 

 papillae of the ventral row. 



Neither Claparede nor de St. Joseph observed any trace of such papillae 



in the specimens from Naples and Dinard, but the Plymouth examples 



agree so completely otherwise with those, that one is inclined to 



* Later, in Decembei-, 1913, Mr, Ortou kindly sent to me at Cambridge a number of 

 living specimens from the Great AVestern Docks. In the living state these were of a dull 

 orange tint over most of the body, due to the internal organs showing through the trans- 

 parent body-wall. Towards the anterior end there was a slight dull greenish pigmenta- 

 tion of the skin, strongest on the head and adjacent segments, but hardly noticeable in 

 most specimens. This pigment is shown up more clearly just after fixation when the body 

 lias become opaque. 



