APHRODITA. 101 



pairs of scales either concealed by a felt or exposed ; the venter 

 distinctly separate, flat, marked with the dissepiments and a longi- 

 tudinal mesial furrow : head small, concealed, with one pair of eyes : 

 proboscis encircled with compound tentacles ; the jaws small, and 

 sometimes obsolete : antenna one, mesial, small ; the palpi two and 

 long : segments 39, with scales on the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and every 

 alternate segment to the 25th, and on the 28th and 32nd ; the inter- 

 vening segments with a dorsal cirrus : feet stout, biramous, with 

 three fascicles of bristles, two on the dorsal and one on the ventral 

 branch ; and each foot has a ventral setaceous cirrus : bristles 

 various, simple or compound, with a spine in each fascicle. No 

 anal styles. 



The AphroditcB are oval in shape, and the rings of the body do 

 not exceed thirty-nine. The head, more or less concealed by the 

 scales or by the bristles, has two somewhat elevated eyes, and a small 

 solitary subulate antenna ; but the palpi are comparatively large. 

 The orifice of the proboscis is encircled with penicillate tentacula, 

 and armed, in general, with thin cartilaginous jaws. The feet are 

 distinctly biramous, and garnished with three bundles of bristles, 

 two of which belong to the dorsal, and the third to the ventral 

 branch. The first pair of feet are small, and furnished with long 

 tentacular cirri ; but the posterior do not differ notably from the 

 rest. The bristles of the dorsal branch are sometimes very compli- 

 cated ; those of the ventral simple or forked. The cirri are subulate, 

 — the inferior small, the superior long. The scales are large, either 

 naked to view, or concealed by a coarse felt formed by the bristles of 

 the dorsal branch of the feet. There are fifteen pairs, and the 13th 

 are always attached to the feet of the 25th segment, — the pairs which 

 precede this * alternate on every other ring with the superior cirri, 

 and the pairs which succeed it are placed on every third ring. The 

 branchiae consist of tubercles sometimes indistinct, often broken on 

 their edges, disposed in transverse rows ; and, like the dorsal cirri, 

 they cease to appear and disappear alternately posterior to the 25th 

 pair of feet. They sometimes differ very little from the protuberances 

 which afford attachment to the scales. 



* Scales concealed. 

 1 . Aph. aculeata, hair-Uke bristles of the dorsal branch of the foot 

 green and golden, forming a splendent fringe round the sides ; the 

 spine-like bristles dark brown. Length 3-4". Plate IX. 



Physalus, Mouff. Theatr. Insect, fig. in tab. ad finem. Jonst. de In- 

 sect, lib. iv. tab. 28. 



Eruca marina Rondeletii pilis in dorso instar colli Columbinii varie- 

 gatis, Sihb. Scot, illustr. pars sec. Ub. iii. 32. 



Scolopendra marina, Molyneux in Phil. Trans. Ahridg. iv. 133, and 368, 

 pi. 3. f. 6, 7- Aldrov. Insect. 636. f. 1. 



* The 4th and 5th rings are, however, both squamiferous. 



