230 TELETHUS^. 



Arenicole, M.-Edw. FJem. Zool. ii. 224. f. 720. 



The Lug, Penn. Brit. Zool. iv. 34. 



The Common Lug, Drummond in Loud. Mag. Nat. Hist. ii. 124. 



The large Sand-Lob or Lugg-worm, Stodart, Angl. Comj). 109. 



Hab. The littoral region, burrowing in sand, with a basis of dark 

 soil formed of rotten sea-weed ; preferring a station near low-water 

 mark. The hole is about 2 feet in depth, and the presence of the 

 worm is detected by the spiral rolls of sandy excrement coiled 

 above the aperture for the tail ; for these worms twist their " ropes 

 of sand" with an ease which spirits might envy, and renew them 

 after every reflux of every tide*. 



Desc. Arenicola jpiscatorum is about 10 inches long, contractile, 

 cylindrical, the anterior and branchial portions thick and mutable in 

 form, the posterior suddenly narrower, varying in colour from a yel- 

 lowish to an vimber-brown, sometimes glossed with purple, sometimes 

 dusky or black, the whole surface rough with small granules. Mouth 

 reddish, puckered, with a short proboscis closely covered with pa- 

 pillae ; above the upper margin of the mouth, which projects a little, 

 there is a small smooth somewhat triangular spot with a furrow in 

 its middle. Segments 19, between the mouth and the last pair of 

 branchiae, as long as their own diameter, each consisting of five 

 granulose rings separated by an impressed line, their own divisions 

 marked by an elevated band very obvious when the worm contracts ; 

 first segment conoid, each of them furnished with a pair of setigerous 

 feet protruding near the band of separation, the first pairs small, 

 gradually enlarged on the other segments ; the seventh pair with a 

 small branchial tuft at its base, and every foot behind this has a 

 similar but larger tuft. Branchise red or purple, arborescent, con- 

 sisting of several principal branches, which are much divided, the 

 divisions spreading, papillary. Bristles yellow, not very numerous, 

 unequal, slightly curved towards the sharp point : underneath this 

 setigerous foot there is a transverse fold, armed with a series of 

 crotchets shaped like the italic letter y*; they are few under the first 

 pairs, but become more numerous under the branchial pairs, forming 

 a ridge which meets its opposite on the mesial line. The tail is 

 equal to the rest of the body in length, the segments indistinct, but 

 often constricted at intervals, and sometimes so regularly, that it 

 might almost be described as moniliform. 



The intestine of the Lug-worm is always full of sand, from which 

 it doubtless extracts the intermixed nutritive matter ; and the colour 

 of the body appears to depend on the nature of the ground the worm 

 burrows in, and on which it feeds, being yellowish-brown when in 

 pure sand, and very dark, or even coal-black, when the soil is miry 



* " The formation of ropes of sand, according to popular tradition, was a work 

 of such difficulty, that it was assigned hy Michael Scot to a number of spirits, for 

 which it was necessary for him to find some interminable employment." — Min- 

 strelsy of the Scot. Border, iii. p. 253. 



" They sifted the sand from the Nine-stane burn, 

 And shaped the ropes so curiouslie ; 

 But the ropes would neither twist nor twine, 

 For Thomas true and his gramarye." — Ibid, p, 266. 



