from the North Sea and adjacent parts. 167 



The strikingly characteristic appearance of E. horealis is 

 due to the projection of the di:)rsal bristles beyond the 

 branchiae. The latter are clearly 2- or 3-lobed, and none of 

 them show the quadripartite condition in the mid-dorsal line 

 mentioned by M'Intosh (1885, p. 6). 



One of the specimens is mature, the body-cavity containing 

 numerous ova. Diatoms were found in the alimentary 

 canal. 



Family Aphroditidze. 



Genus Aphrodita, Linnseus, 1735. 



Aphrodita aculeata, Linn., 1765. 



Nine specimens of this annelid were dredged in Loch Aber 

 at a depth of 148 m. They are small in size, the largest 

 being little more than 30 mm. long. None of the specimens 

 is ripe. The gut-contents consisted of diatoms, minute algae, 

 fragments of various minerals and of echinoderm spines, 

 spoiige-spicules, fragments of crustaceans, and bristles ot" 

 other annelids. 



Aphrodita echidna, de Quatref ages ?, 1865. 



One small specimen, 6 mm. long, occurred in a haul taken 

 in 21 fathoms 3 miles west of Tarbet Ness (Moray Firth). 

 The number of segments is only about 20. 



M'Intosh (1885, p. 36) records A. echidna from the Strait 

 of Magellan on two occasions. De Quatrefages (1865, p. 197) 

 gives its habitat as South America. Treadwell (1903, 

 p. 1157) found it in over 200 fathoms in Hawaii. The 

 ]n-esent record is the jfirst from the North Sea., and shows the 

 distribution of this annelid to be cosmopolitan. It has, 

 however, yet to be recorded from the western seas of Britain. 



Treadwell remarks that the ventral set£e are gradually 

 narrowed from the base to the tip, which he notes as pro- 

 truding beyond the pilose patch, as in the bristle of Iphiove 

 spinosa, Kinberg. In the present specimen the pilose patch 

 projects beyond the tip of the bristle, and is itself drawn out 

 into a fine curved point. The delicate colourless dorsal seta3 

 described by Treadwell are not present. The dorsal felt has 

 much debris entangled in it, but the elytra are quite free from 

 any deposit. 



A parasitic Lo.vosoma occurred on the dorsum. 



12* 



