14*1: Mi'sccUancous. 



their mode of life, except that at tlie end of May I found one of tho 

 animals, still living, quite loose in its chitiuous envelope. This 

 (together with the whole dentarj' armature of the oesophagus) was 

 completely thrown ofl'; and the animal therefore regularly moulted. 

 — Zeitschr. fur wiss. ZooL Bd. xxi. p. 3So. 



On Priapulus caudatus, Linn. By Dr. E. von Willimoes-Suhm. 



Priapuhis was obtained by me more rarely than Ilalicnjptus ; in 

 fact I only captui'ed six specimens in all, which buned themselves very 

 biiskly as soon as I piit them into the pan. They worked onward 

 by quickly extending the proboscis and retracting it etjually rapidly, 

 usually keeping the caudal appendage close to the body. But their 

 movements soon became slower, and in a few dav"s their muscular 

 power seemed lost; fur they lay still for a long time with the caudal 

 appendage extended, and then died. Priapulm also will probably 

 pass through its first stages of development at the end of April or 

 the beginning of May ; for as early as the middle of June I captured 

 several verj- small and still quite transparent animals in the towing- 

 net. The smallest of them was G millims. in length, and moved 

 just like the adult, which it also perfectly resembled, even to the 

 tail, in its external form. The dcnticulation of the oesophagus and 

 the divisions of the nutiitivc canal were distinctly recognizable. 

 Xear the anus the sexual glands opened ; and on them the same 

 appendicular gland was perceptible that I observed in J/alkn/ptus. 



In Prkqndvs the caudal appendage, as is well known, is a con- 

 tinuation of the body-cavity, in which, as in the latter, the cells of 

 the body-fluids circulate freely. At the external end there is a 

 pore, through which perhaps water is received into the body. The 

 appendage, which, like the covering of the body, possesses a longi- 

 tudinal and transverse musculature, was, in one yoimg animal, con- 

 stricted only in three places. Those " points '' of the subcuticle 

 which Ehlers * has described project into the chitinous membrane 

 in much greater numbers than in the true body of the animal. 

 These points also exist in abundance on the papilla) which, in the 

 adult Priapulm, cover the whole apiicndage like berries. In our 

 young animal these papillie only exist at the upper part, and in 

 small number ; below they are entirely wanting. The young ani- 

 mal is thus distinguished from the adult. 



According to an oral communication from Dr. Liitken, of Copen- 

 hagen, I may mention the G'>esund as a habitat o( J^rinjnthi.t, as it 

 is found, although not abundantly, near Hellebaek. — Zeitfchr. fiir 

 tviss. ZooL Bd. xxi. p. 380. 



• Uelx^v die Gattuug i'/-/(//>»/M.';, p. iM. 



