116 APHRODITACEiE. 



This species propagates in early spring. The eggs, according to 

 Sars, seem to pass through a very small aperture just above the 

 feet. Here they lie, protected beneath the scales, while the process 

 of hatching proceeds ; and when the foetal worms are mature enough, 

 they come forth from the mucus surrounding the eggs, leave their 

 mother in successive parturitions, and swim freely about in the water, 

 as very minute greenish-grey points, endowed with a lively action. 

 They are then very unlike the mother both in form and in structure. 

 They are short, oval, unarticulated objects, without any external 

 organs excepting a circle of long cilia round the centre of the body. 

 On the narrower and anterior portion there are two eyes, propor- 

 tionably large. This portion is always pvit forward in swimming, 

 which is done rapidly, and in all directions, by the action solely of 

 the cilia that encircle the middle. "Frequently," says Sars, "these 

 young animals revolve during swimming round their longitudinal 

 axis. Their sight is distinctly developed, for they are seen to avoid 

 one another with adroitness, and they always swim towards the 

 light. Although I turned the glass containing an immense number 

 of them in various ways, they immediately swam in great troops to 

 the side turned towards the light." The appearances the worm 

 assumes in the successive stages, from birth to maturity, are yet un- 

 known. 



Obs. Very variable in its colour and markings ; and the variety 

 with a purple or red fascia along the back, I formerly mistook for 

 A. lepiclota, — a species yet uncertain. The scales, to the naked eye, 

 appear smooth and glossy, but they are really roughish, with minute 

 spines only visible under a good magnifier. 



(a) South coast of Devon, G. Montagu. 



(b) Holy Island, Dr. Johnston. 



(c) Rothesay, Miss M'Douell. 



(d) Wick, Caithness, C. W. Peach. 



Plate III. Fig. 2. Lepidonotus cirratus, nat. size. 2 a. The head ; '. the 

 antenna?; ".the palpi; '".the tentacular cirri. 2c. A scale. 2d. 

 The proboscis laid open. 2 e. A foot with a tentacular cirrus. 2/. A 

 foot without the tentacular cirrus. 



6. L. semiscTilptus, scales fifteen pairs, imbricate, subcircular and 

 reniform, rough, with granulations and a few warts on the margin 

 and disk, the edge unciliated ; ventral branch of the foot oblong, 

 with a long pointed apex ; bristles bidentate at the apex, and spino- 

 denticulate on the shaft. Length 1^" ; breadth 4'". 

 Lepidonotus semisculptus. Leach in Mus. Brit. 



Hab. South Devon coast, J. Cranch. 



it has evidently been derived from a mutilated specimen. We shall not be able to 

 identify the species of our early authors, unless we adapt to their descriptions a 

 less exact measure of criticism than we are entitled to use with recent ones. De 

 Blainville places the Aph. cirrhata of Pallas amongst doubtful species {Diet, des 

 Sc. nat. Ivii. 459). 



