{&4) 



Tne_ ^a ult Pi:cai:i-s Archi tec t a. 



Piioronis .-..rctii tecta was ciisccve'^ea by Andrews (1) in June 

 1L&5 at Beaufort, 1. C. anu no aesc-ibed it as a luew specied, 

 givin., it tne specific uaiue "archi tecta" on accouiit, no acnbt, 

 of itd bujluing a beautiful, atrai^iht tube. He finds that the 

 tubes are made up of a clear, firm, chi tin-like membrane coverea 

 with small clear grains of sand and he thinks tl;at these <_,rains 

 are selected by the animal. 1 have found that specimens col- 

 lected from different localities in Beaufort Harbor vary con- 

 siderably in regard to the character of the sand grains ana 

 quite often small fragments of dark shells are found mixed in 

 with the latter. Occasionally tv;o tuLea occur ce-oentea togeth- 

 er but this conaitioi. is rare for tney am usually iaolatea ana 

 imbeaaed pe rj. endiculariy in the sand. Wlien the specimens are 

 brou^..L into tne laboratory ana put into aquaria v^ith sand ana 

 wr.ter, tney usually crav/l out of their tubes ana be^in to -f^orm 

 new ones. Lon^^cnampo (12) has lately pointea out that the tube 

 is fbrmea by a secretion from the posterior ona o- ti;e anim.l 



'^u not from tne anterior ena as Cori has saia. This 1 fina 

 to be the case for P. ..rchitecta. 



Above it is statea that the tubes are straignt but wt.ere 

 new tubes are fbrmea in the aquaria, they are al.-ays twistea to 

 a considerable ex^nt and tney are attaci.ed fir.ly to the bottom 



