from the JSorth Sea and adjacent parts. 167 



The strikingly characteristic appearance of E. horealis is 

 due to the projection of the dorsal bristles beyond the 

 branchiie. The latter are clearly 2- or 3-lobed, and none of 

 them show the quadripartite condition in the mid-dorsal line 

 mentioned by M'lntosh (1885, p. 6). 



One of the specimens is mature, the body-cavity containing- 

 numerous ova. Diatoms were found in the alimentary 

 canal. 



Family Aphroditidse. 



Genus Aphrodita, Linnoaus, 1735. 



Aphrodita aculeata, Linn., 1765. 



Nine specimens of this annelid were dredged in Loch Abor 

 at a depth of 148 m. They are small in size, the largest 

 being little more than 30 mm. long. None of the specimens 

 is ripe. The gut-contents consisted of diatoms, minute algaj, 

 fragments of various minerals and of echinoderm spines, 

 sponge-spicules, fragments of crustaceans, and bristles of 

 other annelids. 



Aphrodita echidna, de Quatrefages?, 1865. 



One small specimen, 6 mm. long, occurred in a haul taken 

 ill 2J: fathoms 3 miles west of Tarbet Ness (Moray Firth). 

 The number of segments is only about 20. 



M'Intosh (1885, p. 36) records A. echidna from the Strait 

 of Magellan on two occasions. De Quatrefages (1865, p. 197) 

 gives its habitat as South America. Treadwell (1903, 

 p. 1157) found it in over 200 fathoms in Hawaii. The 

 present record is the first from the North Sea, and shows the 

 distribution of this annelid to be cosmopolitan. It has, 

 however, yet to be recorded from the western seas of Britain. 



Treadwell remarks that the ventral setJB are gradually 

 narrowed from the base to the tip, which he notes as pro- 

 truding beyond the pilose patch, as in the bristle of Ipkione 

 spinosa, Kinberg. In the present specimen the pilose patch 

 projects beyond the tip of the bristle, and is itself drawn out 

 into a fine curved point. The delicate colourless dorsal setffl 

 described by Treadwell are not present. The dorsal felt" has 

 much debris entangled in it, but the elytra are quite free from 

 any deposit. 



A parasitic Lo.vosoma occurred on the dorsum. 



12* 



