THE ANNALS 



Airo 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[THIRD SEEIES.] 

 No. 66. JUNE 1863. 



XLII. — On the Capitellse and their Position in the Si/stem of the 

 Annelida. By Edward Grube *. 



By the communications published by Van Benedenf upon the 

 genus Capitella, Blainv. {Lumhricona'is, Oerst.), and especially 

 upon C. capitata {Lumbricus capitatus, Fab.), our knowledge of 

 this very peculiar Annelide has been most essentially advanced. 

 These statements not only complete what has been ascertained 

 by A. S. Oersted J and Leuckart§ as to the external structure 

 and the nature of the intestinal canal, but they also include the 

 whole remaining organization, the sexual relations (the divergence 

 of which from those of the Lumbrici was previously indicated by 

 Leuckart), and furnish results which are confirmed by investiga- 

 tions carried on independently. When I was at Copenhagen in 

 1856, Oersted laid before me a series of drawings relating to the 

 anatomy of the Capitella, and incited me, during my stay there, 

 to convince myself of the many peculiarities which had occurred 

 to him in the course of his observations, and amongst which the 

 presence of numerous definitely formed and comparatively large 

 red corpuscles in the somatic cavity, the remarkable partial in- 

 flation of the body, and the entire deficiency of blood-vessels, 

 had most struck him. He had also learned how to distinguish 

 males and females by their external and internal structure, 

 and believed that he had recognized the anterior part of the 

 nervous system. The occurrence of these Annelides in the great 



* Translated by W. S. Dallas, F.L.S., from Wiegmann's Archiv, 1862, 

 p. 366. 



t " Hist. Nat. du genre Capitella," Bull, de I'Acad. Roy. de Belgique, 

 se'r. 2. iii. Nos. 9, 10 (1857). 



X " Conspectus generum specierumque Naidum," Kriiyer's Tidssk. iv. 

 1842, p. 128, pi. 3. figs. 6, 10, 11. 



§ Beitrage zur Kenntniss wirbellos. Thiere (1847), p. 151 ; and Arcbiv 

 fur Naturgeschichte, xv. (1849), p. 163. 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. xi. 26 



