PSAMATHE. 181 



segment; dorsal cirrus heart-shaped, pedicellate; the inferior 

 conical. 



Phyllodoce cordifolia, F. D. Dyster in lit. 

 Hab. On oyster-beds in 5 fathoms, Dyster. 



Obs. Head small, conical, with two eyes near the posterior line. 

 There are about 50 to 60 segments. Dorsal cirrus expanded into 

 a cordate lamina indented at the base. Ventral cirrus short and 

 conical. Bristles slender, with the acicular terminal piece serru- 

 lated along the edge, as seems to be the case in all the species. 

 Very active, swimming with vigorous serpentine movements. — F. D. 

 Dyster. 



♦* 



The body proportionably short, and consisting of fewer segments ; all 

 the cirri filiform and elongate. Hesionea (p. 1/5). 



16. PSAMATHE*. 



Castalia, Savigny, Syst. Annel. 1820, 46. Oersted, Annul. Dan. 



Consp. 23. Grube, Fam. Annel. 58 : not Lamk. 

 Psamathe, Johnston in Loud. Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 14 (1836), and in 



Ann. Nat. Hist. iv. 229. Grube, Fam. Annel. 58. 

 Psammate, Sars, Adriat. Havs Faun. 9. 

 Halimede, Rathke in Nov. Act. Curios. Ccesar. xx. 167 (1843). Ray 



Soc. Rep. Zool. 1847, 507. 



Char. Body scolopendriform ; head small, with two small an- 

 tennae and two palpi alike in form ; eyes four, in pairs : proboscis 

 short and cylindrical, furnished with a pair of slender, weak, light- 

 coloured jSws, and encircled on the orifice with papillae : post-occi- 

 pital segment similar to the others : tentacular cirri four pairs, 

 unequal, elongate : " feet with two branches, the superior very 

 minute, the inferior large, three-lobed, a single spine in the superior 

 branch, three in the inferior ; the bristles in the superior capillary 

 and very slender; in the inferior much stronger and falcate." — 

 Oersted. 



This genus, which I have named Psamathe, in honour of the 

 daughter of Nereus and Doris, will take rank, as it appears to me, 

 between Syllis and Hesione. It differs from the first in the num- 

 ber and structure of the antennae, in the form of the head, and 

 in the arrangement of the eyes ; and from the latter in the form of 

 the body (which is, in this family, an important character) and in 

 the structure of the proboscis. In Hesione this is very long, and 

 destitute of oral tentacula. 



* A Nereid : 



" And Psamathe for her brode snowy brests." — Spenser. 

 Sars writes the name Psammate {Adriat. Havs Fauna, p. 9). According to Oersted, 

 the genus is the same as the Castalia of Savigny, instituted in 1817. It is un- 

 doubtedly synonymous with the Halimede of Rathke. 



