THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



No. 90. SEPTEMBER 1844. 



XVIII. — Some Observations on the Genus Serpula, ivith an Enu- 

 meration of the Species observed with the Animal in the Medi- 

 terranean. By Dr. A. Philippi*. 



[With a Plate.] 



Few animals have been so mucli neglected by natui'alists as the 

 Serpulce, frequent proofs of which assertion will occur in the 

 coiu'se of these observations ; it is on this account that I consider 

 it advantageous to lay before the zoological public the results of 

 my observations made on twenty-five species relative to the ex- 

 ternal structure of the animal; I shall reserve for a separate 

 work more detailed descriptions, which will be accompanied by 

 drawings. 



Linnseus, in the 12th edition of his ' Systema Naturse/ p. 1264, 

 characterizes the genus Serpida thus : "Animal Terebella. Testa 

 imivalvis, tubulosa, adhserens (ssepe isthmis integris intercepta) " 

 By the words " animal Terebella/'' Linnseus, although he has ad- 

 mitted several species of Vermetus among Serpula from his being 

 unacquainted wth the animals, has nevertheless excluded Adan- 

 son^s Vermetus. The words " ssepe isthmis integris intercepta " 

 refer solely to the shell of Vermetus, and must therefore be ex- 

 cluded from the diagnosis. Lamarck likewise adopts this false 

 characteristic ; but Blainville has correctly stated in the ' Diet, des 

 Sciences Naturelles,' vol. xlviii. p. 550, that it is precisely in the 

 absence of septa that the shell of Sei-pula differs from that of 

 Vermetus. My former supposition, that the shell of Vermetus 

 possessed exclusively a porcellanous nature, while that of the spe- 

 cies of Serpula was calcareous, I must now retract, having become 

 acquainted mth true Serpulce with a vitreous shell. 



The true Serpulce have been divided by modern zoologists into 

 the following genera : Serpula, Lamk. ; Vermilia, Lamk. ; Galeo- 

 laria, Lamk. ; Cymospira, Savigny, Blain\dlle ; Spirorbis, Lamk. ; 

 Filograna, Berkeley; Protula, Risso; Spiromella, Savigny, Blain- 



* From Wiegmann's Archiv, Part 2. 1844. Translated by W. Francis, 

 Ph.D. 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Vol. xiv. M 



