288 Dr. W. C M'Intosli on the Boring of certain Annelids. 



Annelidan borings have been noticed by many observers. 

 In 1765 Baster* describes and figures the very species 

 [Leucodore ciliata)^ I have no doubt, which has just been 

 brought forward by Mr. Lankester. He observes, "Alteram 

 Nereidis speciem, quam hie describo, voco minimam tentaculis 

 longissimis ; " and his next sentence shows that he had at 

 least as extensive an acquaintance with its habitat as some 

 very recent writers : — " Haec in lapidibus, ostreis, aliisque 

 piscibus testaceis, qui e limoso maris fundo petuntur, reperitur 

 quam frequentissime, habitans semper in parvo ex limo aut 

 arena constructo tubulo." This author, although he does not 

 further allude to the habitations in the stones, mentions that 

 he put a quantity of sand beside them in a glass vessel, and 

 that they very soon bored into this, and constructed tubes at 

 the entrance of their tunnels. The Abbd Dicquemaref in 1781 

 also refers to the same species, and he gives figures of the 

 animal which, however inaccurate, may at least bear com- 

 parison with some of very modern date. He called it a sea- 

 insect, and he cites it as an influential agent in destroying the 

 calcareous rocks and stones in the neighbourhood of Havre. 

 In a second paper by the same author J, what appears to be a 

 Sahellaria is described, which, it is stated, prolongs its tail 

 within the rock or stone, as well as fashions a tube of coarse 

 sand or fine gravel outside. He advanced the idea of a sol- 

 vent to account for these borings, an explanation all the more 

 likely, as his specimens of rocks bored by marine " insects " 

 were all calcareous. Dr. P. C Abildgaard § gives fair descrip- 

 tions and figures of two species which bore into the marble 

 cliffs and calcareous stones below water at Santa Cruz in the 

 West Indies. He calls the one Terehella hicomis^ and the 

 other Terehella stellata. The first is a Cymospira {C. bicornis) 

 characterized by having a hard, horny, flattish operculum, 

 from which project two branched antler-shaped processes. He 

 also mentions at the end of his paper that another was sent 

 him with three horns on its operculum, the third being closely 

 appressed to the plate ; but the animal was otherwise similar 

 to the first. The latter is thus closely related to the Cymo- 

 spira tricornis of Dr. Baird |i, who remarks tliat it had ap- 

 parently burrowed in Madrepore — a habit characteristic of 

 other species of the genus, whose galleries occasionally pierce 



* Basteri Opuscula Subseciva, torn. ii. lib. iii. p. 134, tab. xii. fig. ii. a, c. 



t Observat. et M^m. Phys. torn, xviii. 1781. 



X Op. eit torn. xx. 1782. 



§ Scbrift. Gesellsch. ntrf. Freiind. Berlin, i. 1789, pp. 138-144. I am 

 indebted to Dr. Albert Giinther for a copy of this paper, he having sent 

 a complete translation, instead of a mere abstract in the original (German). 



II Journ. Linn. Soc. vol, viii. 1865, p. 17. 



