THE ANNALS -^^^ 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 

 No. 12. DECEMBER 1868. 



XL VIII. — On the Annelid Family of the Maldaniea. 

 By Professor Grube*. 



QUATREFAGES gives this family its widest extent by including 

 in it Clymene^ Sav., and its nearest allies — not merely Ammo- 

 chares^ but also Glymenidiaj Arenia, Ancistrtay and Glymenia 

 (which show a great resemblance to Capitella^ Notomastus^ and 

 Dasyhranchus) as " Clymdniens degrades ; " whilst Malmgren 

 and Keferstein only include the first-mentioned genus, and 

 even exclude Ammochares. 



In this more restricted sense, therefore, the family em- 

 braces only genera of which tlie uncini are arranged in one 

 (or two) transverse series, and is distinguished from all other 

 families by several exclusive characters. There are a few 

 Annelids which are characterized by a small and constant 

 number of segments, such as the Ajphroditce^ a portion of the 

 genus Polynoej Sav., Hesione^ &c. ; but among all these there 

 are none in which the segments attain so great a length. In 

 the Maldaniea their number never exceeds twenty-six or 

 twenty-seven ; and their length in the more fully developed 

 examples at least equals, or even exceeds, their breadth. As 

 the length increases from the two ends towards the middle of 

 the body, some segments grow so considerably that they are 

 twice or three times as long as broad, or even still longer. It 

 is further to be remarked that the setag, and the uncini seated 

 beneath them, do not occupy the same position on all the seg- 

 ments, but are placed, on the anterior segments, in front of the 

 middle, and on the rest near the hinder margin. This change 

 of position probably occurs generally before the middle of 

 the body ; and the two segments on which it takes place show 

 a less distinct division between them than the rest. Fre- 



* Translated by W. S. Dallas, F.L.S., from the Jahres-Beiicht der 

 Schlesischen Gesellschaft fiir vaterl. Cultur, 1867, pp. 52-58. 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist, Ser. 4. Volil 28 



