260 SERPULID^. 



Sabella vesiculosa, Johnston in Ann. 8f Mag. N. Hist. xvi. 449. Cuv. 

 Reg. Anim. illustr. Annel. pi. 5. f. 3. Grube, Fam. Annel. 88. Wil- 

 liams in Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1851, 205 ; and in Ann. 8f Mag. N. Hist. 

 ser. 2. xii. 395. 



Hab. South coast of Devonshire, Montagu. 



Desc. " Body with numerous annulations of a pale dull orange 

 colour minutely speckled with yellowish-white ; a broad indistinct 

 stripe down the back, in the middle of which is a depressed line as 

 far as the ninth joint, where it turns transversely to the left side and 

 is lost ; the eight anterior joints are destitute of the dorsal depression, 

 and on this part the branchiae and fasciculi are most conspicuous : 

 tentacula two, furnished with about twenty-eight long ciliated fibres, 

 each similar in shape to those of A. geolutea, but appear subcon- 

 voluted, the under part turning inwards ; at the point of each ray 

 is a dark purplish vesicle, most conspicuous on the anterior ray of 

 each plume, terminated by a short hyaline appendage : the mouth 

 ringent : lips whitish, furnished with two slender feelers or cirri : be- 

 hind the plumose tentacula is a scalloped membrane surrounding the 

 anterior end ; this, except the lower division, is white." — "This new 

 and beautiful species, like most others of its genus, prepares a tube 

 for its habitation, the internal texture of which is coriaceous like that 

 of A. ventilabrum, generally described as Sabella penicillus ; but the 

 external part is invariably coated with much coarser sand, intermixed 

 with fragments of shells." — Montagu. 



The branchiae are about one-sixth the length of the body. The 

 point of the filaments is setaceous and naked ; and the dark tubercle 

 is seated, on the inner side, just above the ciliary fringe. It is not 

 a vesicle, but a solid globule filled vpith coloured granules. It were 

 easy to ask — Are these organs eyes 1 — for it is now fashionable to 

 ascribe a visual office to every coloured speck to which other function 

 cannot be assigned ; but before answering the question, we should 

 remember that to call them eyes were to place an Argus in an eyeless 

 family. The body is thicker than a quill, tapered a little posteriorly : 

 the first segment narrow, the dorsal lobes connivent and pointed in 

 front, with a small perforated wart behind, between it and the second 

 segment ; this segment is broader than the others. The following 

 segments are about equal and smooth, the dorsal band divided into 

 small squares by the medial line bisecting the sutures. This medial 

 line does not exist on the thoracic, but begins on the second abdo- 

 minal segment, and continues to the vent. The bristles in the fas- 

 cicles of the thoracic feet are of two kinds, — the first dull yellow, 

 stout, with a cylindrical shaft thickened and a little bent near the 

 apex, which is brought to a rather obtuse point ; — the second colour- 

 less, of unequal lengths, more numerous and slender, with an acute 

 lance-shaped point, acute on both edges. The abdominal feet want 

 the first kind of bristles, but are furnished with a considerable brush 

 of the second kind. The uncini are siphonate, with an entire un- 

 divided point. 



(«) South Devon, G. Montagu. 



