102 LIFE BY THE SEASHORE. 



carnivorous animal, living chiefly upon other bristle-worms. 

 It is also of interest because of the beauty of the egg masses 

 which are laid in spring. Everyone must have noticed the 

 little sacs of transparent jelly, filled with minute bright 

 green eggs, which are so common in spring on the shore 

 attached to stones, shells, and weed. In shape they are like 

 very large grapes with a soft jelly stalk. These are the eggs 

 of Eulalia viridis, and if you pierce the jelly and examine a 

 few of the freed green specks under the microscope in 

 water, you will probably see the little top-shaped larvae 

 creating miniature whirlpools by the active movements of 

 their long cilia. These peculiar larvae occur in the life- 

 history of most bristle-worms, and also of Molluscs. They 

 are active little creatures adapted for life near the surface of 

 the water, and thus are probably important in the distribu- 

 tion of sedentary forms like most of the bristle-worms. At 

 least the early stages of development can be followed in the 

 eggs of the Phyllodocids, and their egg packets are certainly 

 the most conspicuous and the most readily found of the eggs 

 of Polycheetes. 



It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to describe Eulalia viridis 

 in further detail. The fifth tentacle arises far back on the 

 head, between the two eyes, and as in Phyllodoce there are 

 four pairs of tentacular cirri, or tactile processes, on the 

 head. The dorsal plates are pointed and elongated, and the 

 ventral similar but smaller. The bright green colour is 

 very characteristic, and makes the worm easy to recognise. 



KEY TO WORMS DESCRIBED IN THIS CHAPTER. 

 Class. CHJETOPODA (bristle-worms). 

 Order. POLYCHJSTA. The bristle-worms of the sea. 



Body short, flattened, 

 with parallel sides 

 Polynoe. 



Body oval and de- 



Worms with flat scales, 



or elytra, on their \ Fain. Aphroditidte. 

 backs. 



pressed, covered dor- 

 sally with a felt of 

 bristles Aphrodite. 



Body elongated and 

 worm - like. Head 

 with three tentacles 

 Sthenclais. 



