THE ANNALS 
AND 
MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
[FOURTH SERIES.] 
No. 12. DECEMBER 1868. 
XLVIII.—On the Annelid Family of the Maldaniea. 
By Professor GRUBE*. 
QUATREFAGES gives this family its widest extent by including 
in it Clymene, Sav., and its nearest allies—not merely Ammo- 
chares, but also Clymenidia, Arenia, Ancistria, and Clymenia 
(which show a great resemblance to Capztella, Notomastus, and 
Dasybranchus) as “ Clyméniens dégradés ;”’ whilst Malmgren 
and Keferstein only include the first-mentioned genus, and 
even exclude Ammochares. 
In this more restricted sense, therefore, the family em- 
braces only genera of which the uncini are arranged in one 
(or two) transverse series, and is distinguished from all other 
families by several exclusive characters. There are a few 
Annelids which are characterized by a small and constant 
number of segments, such as the Aphrodite, a portion of the 
genus Polynoé, Sav., Hesione, &c.; but among all these there 
are none in which the segments attain so great a length. In 
the Maldaniea their number never exceeds twenty-six or 
twenty-seven; and their length in the more fully developed 
examples at least equals, or even exceeds, their breadth. As 
the length increases from the two ends towards the middle of 
the body, some segments grow so considerably that they are 
twice or three times as long as broad, or even still longer. It 
is further to be remarked that the sete, and the uncini seated 
beneath them, do not occupy the same position on all the seg- 
ments, but are placed, on the anterior segments, in front of the 
middle, and on the rest near the hinder margin. This change 
of position probably occurs generally before the middle of 
the body ; and the two segments on which it takes place show 
a less distinct division between them than the rest. Fre- 
* Translated by W.S. Dallas, F.L.S., from the Jahres-Bericht der 
Schlesischen Gesellschaft ftir vaterl. Cultur, 1867, pp. 52-58. 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. ii, 28 
