SABELLARIAD^.. 247 



Fam. XVI. SABELLARIAD^, 



Hermellacba, Gruhe, Fam. Annel. 83. 



Hermelliens = Hermellea, Quairefages in Ann. des Sc. nat. x. 

 12, 13 (1848). 



Char. Body vermiform, subcylindrical, of two distinct portions ; 

 the anterior segmented with setigerous and uncinated feet; the 

 posterior narrow, without segments and apodous, hke a caudal ap- 

 pendage : head disciform, armed with concentric circles of dissimilar 

 and pecuhar bristles, and cleft longitudinally into two equal halves, 

 capable of being separated when the animal is protruded, and ex- 

 posing the numerous tentacula which fringe the edges on their ventral 

 surface : mouth at the base of the cylindrical neck formed by the 

 head-lobes, encircled with a somewhat extensile lip, emaxillary : 

 branchiae in pairs on all the segments, dorsal, Ungulate, or very nar- 

 rowly triangular : feet in two series, the upper prominent, armed on 

 some of the anterior segments with flat, but otherwise with hooked 

 bristles, rudimentary or wanting on the second segment, and on the 

 following segments furnished with small fascicles of capillary bristles. 



42. SABELLARIA. 



Sabellaria, Lam. Anim. s. Vert. v. 350. Gruhe, Fam. Annel. 84. 

 Hermella, Savigny, Syst. Annel. 81. Quairefages in Ann. des Sc. nat. 

 X. 13 (1848). 



Char. Cephalic disk opercular, armed with peculiar and dissimilar 

 bristles (paleee) arranged in three or two circular series ; post-occipital 

 segment elongate, smooth, cleft beneath, and fringed with numerous 

 tentacular filaments : thoracic portion with three pairs of lateral feet 

 armed with lanceolate bristles in a flat brush : bristles of the abdo- 

 minal segments setaceous : booklets minute, peculiar, in a marginal 

 series, and each attached to a long capillary filament. 



The Sabellarice are oviparous, and the ova are laid from spring to 

 autumn. They live between tide-marks, and the alternate submer- 

 sion and exposure to the atmosphere seems to be, according to M. 

 de Quatrefages, very favourable to their growth and increase. It is 

 not, however, a condition essential to their life. Specimens have 

 been taken from shells, and from oyster-beds, dredged from the 

 depth of several fathoms ; and a very favourite locality is the root of 

 the Laminariee, which, on our northern shores, is rarely uncovered 

 by the water. 



