NKREIS. 



155 



styles. The proboscis is encircled at the base with two irregular 

 series of dark prickles, and in front there is a solitary one, on each 

 side, placed on a swollen part, with a group of three small prickles 

 in the intervening concave space. The second segment has six 

 clusters of these prickles around the mouth, but in the dorsal cluster 

 there are two prickles only. The jaws have five very obtuse den- 

 ticulations, with a plain curved apex. 



From great unwillingness to delete the nomenclature of our older 

 authors, and because Leach appears to have had no precise idea of 

 his N. margaritacea, and the name has been variously applied, 

 I gladly venture to affix to this species a Linnsean name, more 

 appropriate than Leach's, and which nothing in the Linnsean de- 

 scription contra-indicates. 



{a) Falmouth. 



{b) Falmouth. 



5. N. fimbriata, jaws with ten denticles ; post-occipital segment 

 twice as long as the second, and the tentacular cirri longer than its 

 diameter ; lobes of the feet acute, divaricate, the dorsal short and 

 small, with an elongated cirrus ; setigerous lobes lanceolate ; the 

 terminal piece of the bristles smooth ; inferior cirrus almost reach- 

 ing the apex of the ventral lobe. Length 3". 



Die faserige Nereide, Mull. Wurm. 144. tab. 8, copied in Encycloj). 



Meth. Vers, pi. 

 Nereis fimbriata, Mull. Zool. Dan. Prod. 217- Turt. Gmel. iv. 86. 

 Nereis subulicola. Leach, MSS. Brit. Mus. Coll. 



Hab. The coralline region. 



Besc. This is our smallest Nereis. No specimen exceeding three 

 inches in length has occurred to me in Berwick Bay. It is distin- 

 guished by its yellowish-white colour (when alive) with a strong 

 pearly lustre, and by its prominent feet armed with black spines, 

 which are quite visible in their sheaths. The head is streaked, more 

 or less, with brown on the sides ; and the anterior portion of the 

 body is tinted with the same colour. The eyes are large and approx- 

 imate. The jaws have ten obtuse denticulations, and the dark falcate 

 point is plain. The tentacular cirri 

 are well developed. The segments 

 are all alike. The lobes of the feet 

 are acute (No. XXVIL), and the dor- 

 sal is small and greatly overreached 

 by its cirrus ; the setigerous lobules 

 larger, lanceolate or cordato-acute ; 

 the inferior cirrus attaining the apex 

 of its lobe. The bristles present no 

 peculiarity. The anal segment is 

 small, rounded, with long styles. 



Obs. This is a common species. It 

 seeks concealment and shelter in the tubes of other worms attached 



No . XXV n . — Nereis fimbriata . 



