254 



VERMES 



SUB-KINGDOM IV 



the tube ringed with imbricating annulations, the free upper surface apparently 

 cellular in structure. Ordovician to Carboniferous. 



Conchicolites, Nich. Conical, slightly bent, thin -walled tubes, growing 

 together in clusters, and attached by the small lower ends to Orthoceras or 

 Brachiopod shells. Tubes made up of numerous short rings, each of which 

 partially overlaps the one below. Ordovician. 



Sub-Order B. EREANTIA. (Nereidae.) 



Free-swimming, predaceous Polychaeta, with well - marked head. Proboscis 

 capable of protrusion, and armed with papillae or powerful jaws. Parapodia much 



more developed than in the Tubicola, beset with 

 setae, and serving for locomotion. 



Undoubted remains of Errant Worms have 

 long been known from the Lithographic Slates 

 (Upper Jura) of Bavaria, and include the 

 trails, calcified jaws, and excrements of numer- 

 ous species. The principal genus from this 

 horizon is Eunicites, Ehlers (Geophilus, Germar), 

 (Fig. 405), perfect impressions of which are 

 also found in the Eocene shales of Monte 

 Bolca. 



Under the head of Lumbricaria, Miinster 

 (Lumbricites, Schlotheim), (Fig. 406), are in- 

 cluded a variety of obscure remains from the 

 Lithographic Slates, which maybe best regarded 



FIG. 405. 



Eunicites avitus, Ehlers. Lithographic 

 Slates ; Eichstiidt, Bavaria. Natural size. 



FIG. 406. 



Lumbricaria colon, Miinst. Lithographic Slates ; Solen- 

 hofen, Bavaria. Natural size. 



as the excrements of Annelides. They occur as irregularly contorted bands or 

 strings, sometimes in the form of labyrinthic coils, and are usually of con- 

 siderable length. 



The Myzostomidae, which are parasitic on living Comatulas, are shown by 

 Graff to have infested also the column segments of Jurassic Crinoids. 



