430 Dr. Johnston o« the British Aphroditace<e. 



palpi large, subulate, flesh-coloured or dusky, jointed at the 

 base, where they approximate, but are separated by a black 

 membranous crest. Mouth inferior, with a large retractile 

 edentulous proboscis ; the orifice encircled with a short even 

 thick-set fringe of compound penicillate filaments divided 

 into two sets by a fissure on each side : each filament has a 

 short stalk with a tuft of numerous forked papillae on its sum- 

 mit; exterior to the orifice of the proboscis there are four 

 fleshy tubercles placed at the angles. Scales fifteen pairs, 

 roundish, smooth, thin and vesicular, blotched with black 

 stains and specks, the first pair small, laid over the head, the 

 anal pair oval: Feet, thirty-nine pairs*, largest and most de- 

 veloped near the middle of the belly, very small and approxi- 

 mate at the anus, biramous, the branches wide asunder ; the 

 superior carries, in a sort of crest-like fashion, the long flexi- 

 ble brilliant coloured bristles which form the silky fringe on 

 each side of the body, and above them some still more deli- 

 cate hairs, which by their intertexture constitute the membrane 

 covering the scales, and with which the strong spiniform 

 bristles are intermixed, placed in a sort of cross series : the in- 

 ferior branch is armed with three rows of stout short bristles, 

 in the upper row only two or three which are longer and 

 stouter than those of the next row in which there are five or 

 six, and which again are stouter but less numerous than those 

 in the lowest row : spine golden yellow, conical, smooth : su- 

 perior cirrus long, subulate, bulged at the base ; the inferior 

 short and conical : anus large, with a dorsal aspect, encircled 

 with several tentacular cirri. 



The very vivid iridescent hues which the hairs of this re- 

 markable worm reflect, render it an object of wonder and sur- 

 prise to the most incurious : they are not equaled by the co- 

 lours of the most gaudy butterfly, and rival the splendour of 

 the diamond beetle f- It creeps at a slow pace, and in its 

 progress a current of water is projected at short intervals, 



* Pallas says, " constanter 40 — 41. Horum 2 prinii minuti, compressi 

 submutici, ex oris quasi palato antrorsum product!, villo barbati, at setis et 

 cirrho destituti." 



f " The Aphrodita aciileata reflecting the sun-beams from the depths of 

 the sea, exhibits as vivid colours as the peacock itself spreading its jewelled 

 train." LinrKcus in Smith's ' Tracts relating to Nat. History,' p. 32. 



