TUBICOL^. 131 



Amphitrite, Cuv.,"^ 



The Araphitrites are easily recognized by the golden coloured setse, 

 arranged like a crown, or the teeth of a comb, in one or two rows, 

 on the anterior part of their head, where they probably sei-ve as a 

 means of defence, or perhaps enable the animal to crawl, or to col- 

 lect the materials of its tube. Numerous tentacula encircle the 

 mouth, and on each side of the fore part of the back are pectiniform 

 branchiae. 



Some of them construct light tubes of a regularly conical figure, 

 which they carry about Avith them. Their gilded setae form two 

 combs, whose teeth incline downwards. Their capacious and fre- 

 quently flexed intestine is usually filled with sand f. Such is the 



Amph. auricoma belgica, Gm. ; Pall., Miscel., IX, 3 — 5. Its 

 tube is two inches long, and formed of variously coloured round 

 granules J. 



Amph. auricoma capensis. Pall., Miscel., IX, i, 2. From the 

 South Seas ; its thin and polished tube appears to be transversely 

 fibrous, and formed of some dessicatcd, soft, and stringy svib- 

 stance. It is a larger species §. 



There are others which inhabit artificial tubes fixed to various 

 bodies. Their gilded setse form several concentric crowns on their 

 head, from which residts an operculum that seals up their tube when 

 they contract, but the two parts of which can separate. Each foot 

 is furnished with a cirrus. The body is. terminated behind in a 



Lin. Trans., XII, 11 ; — T. nebulosa, Id, lb., 12, 2; — T. constnctov. Id. lb., 13, 1 ; 

 — T. venusfa, lb., 2 ; he also calls one of them T. cirrhafa, lb., XII, 1 ; but which 

 does not appear to be the same as that of Miiller. Add T. variabilis, Risso, &c. 



N.B. M. Savigny makes two other divisions "of TerebeUae, the T. Phyzeli.e, 

 which have but two pairs of branchise, and the T. Idali.e, that have but one pair. 

 Among the latter would come the Amphifrite cristata, Miill., Zool. Dan., Ixxr, 1,4; 

 Amph. venfricosa, Bosc, Ver., I, vi, 4 — 6. 



* This genus, as it stands in Miiller, Brugieres, Gmelin, and Lamarck, also in- 

 cludes some Terebellee &ad Sabellts. In 1824, Diet, des Sc. Nat. II, p. 78, I reduced 

 it to its actual limits ; since then, M. Lamarck has changed my divisions into 

 genera, his Pectixarije and Sabellari-e, termed Aphictex^ and Hermell.e 

 by Sa\-igny. The Amphitrites of Lamarck are my SABELi.iE. M. Savigny, on 

 the contrary, makes it the name of a family. 



t They are the Pectixarue, Lam. ; Aphictex^, Savig. ; Chrysodoxtes, 

 Oken ; and the Cistex.e of Leach. This perpetual changing of names — and in 

 this particvdar case there was not even the pretext of a change of limits in the group 

 — will finally end in rendering nomenclature a much more difficult study than that of 

 facts. 



X The same as the Sabella belgica, Gm., Klein., tab. I, 5, Echinod., xxxiii. A, B, 

 and as the Amph. auricoma, Miill., Zool. Dan. xxvi, of which Brugi^res has made his 

 Amphitrite dor^e. 



§ The same as the Sabella chrysodon, Gm., Berg., Stock. Mem., 1765, IX, 1,3 ; 

 as the Sabella capensis, Id., Stat., Miill., Nat. Syst., VI, xix, 67, which is a mere 

 copy of Bergius ; as the Sabella iiidica, Abildgaart, Berl. Schr., IX, iv. See also 

 Mart. Slabber, Fless. Mem., I, ii, 1—3. 



