292 Trof. M'liitosli's Notes from the 



Of the Polynoidse, Lepidasthema argus was found in the 

 tube of Amphitrite edwanlsi at Plymouth {Hodyson). The 

 cephalic region is reddish with a aiediau longitudinal groove. 

 The median tentacle is long, stout, enhirged near the filiform 

 tip ; lateral tentacles more slender and the swelling indistinct. 

 Tentacular cirri similar to the lateral tentacles. All the fore- 

 going are smooth with a dark band at the distal part of the 

 enlargement, which has a belt of opaque white. The palpi 

 are long and tapered — exceeding the tentacular cirri in length. 

 Eyes four, anterior pair wider apart and slightly larger than 

 the posterior. The proboscis in extrusion is a firm cylin- 

 drical organ fully a centimetre in length, with a transverse 

 slit at the tip, guarded by about a dozen papillae on each 

 margin, most of them with pigmented patches. Two slightly 

 curved horny jaws occur above and below, and when locked 

 they are alternate. The basal region of the organ in 

 extrusion is marked dorsally by two brown bands. 



The body is elongate (8^ inches), and with upwards of two 

 hundred segments, tapered a little anteriorly, and more dis- 

 tinctly posteriorly, where it terminates in an anus with two 

 short cirri. In life the colour is a brown of varying degrees 

 of intensity with a tendency to a purplish hue. The 

 intervals between the segments have a transverse bar of dark 

 brown, and the cirrus-bearing feet have a diffused patch of 

 the same pigment, scarcely perceptible on those carrying 

 elytra. The ventral surface is nearly colourless, except for a 

 median longitudinal line of red. 



The scales are subcircular or, in a few, reniform ; surface 

 and margin smooth. Each has a dark brown patch immedi- 

 ately behind the scar and spreading inward toward the 

 posterior border, near Avhich is a curved streak of opaque 

 white. Arborescent nerve-twigs are spread over the entire 

 elytron. One example, 8| inches long, had 67 elytra and 

 199 segments. 



In the first foot the dorsal division is represented by a 

 papilla, to which the spine goes. The ventral division carries 

 thirty or more bristles, which have slender shafts and elon- 

 gated spinous tips with, in some, traces of a cleft. The 

 spinous border is directed ventrally. The ventral cirrus 

 is long. In the typical foot the dorsal division may carry 

 f«ur or five long, slender, and smooth bristles. In the 

 ventral division are three groups of bristles, an upper with 

 long slender shafts and elongate spinous tips, a median of 

 numerous stout bristles with shorter tips, and a ventral series 

 with still shorter tips. All the bristles with the exception 

 of the first two feet are bifid. The segmental papillae are 



