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PROCEEDmQS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



VOL. 39. 



That these masses on the females are really spermatophores was 

 again indicated by the observation that in one female PolycTieles 

 sculptus from Albatross station 2677, from off Cape Fear, in 478 

 fathoms, there were two in place of the usual single pair of the 

 spermatophores. One pair was as in fig. 11, the other was similar 

 but not so well made, that is less completely fused and more evidently 

 complex. It was applied to the regular one so as to lie over its posterior 

 half and thence project back freely without contact with the body 

 wall of the female. 



It was quite evident that this accessory pair of spermatophores was 

 but a pair of tubes filled with a mass of white substance, presumably 

 sperm. Probably after one male had applied the normal pair of 

 spermatophores another male added a second pair. 



Sectioning pieces of a spermatophore shows that it is but a secreted 

 mass containing sperm and no other cellular elements whatever. 



Fig. 12.— Cross section of ventral part of thorax of Polycheles sculptus with nerve cord 

 below and the applied spermatophores above outside the shell which is indicated as a 

 dark layer. 



A cross section through the shell of the female represented in fig. 

 11, across the anterior part of the applied spermatophore mass, is 

 represented in fig. 12. Below is the median nerve cord and blood 

 vessel, connective tissue, and thick shell of the female. Above is the 

 pair of spermatophores showing as a secreted mass containing a 

 central rod. of sperm, right and left. The secretion has become more 

 dense where it is in contact with the water and the sperm, producing 

 a sort of denser shell, but there is no special structure there, and 

 moreover even this differentiation is absent where the secretion comes 

 against the shell of the female to which it adheres so firmly. The 

 asymmetry of the two combined spermatophores is seen in the section. 



In sections farther back where the mass is wider, fig. 11 and fig. 13, 

 the ventral nerve ganglion is much nearer the shell, since this region 



