234 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



TRANSVERSE SECTION' OF LUG \VOUM. 



(After Gegenbaur.) 



In general form they are long, cylindrical, somewhat inflated anteriorly, and a certain number 

 of the segments are provided with beautiful arbuscular branchiae. In some of the species these 

 branchise are finely tinted, and the worm itself is often of a carmine colour, or of a deeper red, 

 though sometimes it is brownish, and at others of a blackish-green, according, in a great degree, to 

 the nature of the ground in which they are found. The Lug Worm is a common species, and is well 

 known to the fishermen. As Mr. Gosse says, " it is rather an uncouth-looking creature ; " and the 

 specimens he found were, in colour, like "what a tailor would call an invisible green." The body 

 is composed of a considerable number of segments, and thirteen of them are furnished with 

 branchial tufts. These branchiae are arborescent in form, of a red or purple colour, and are said 

 by Gosse, from an examination of the animal in life, to be protrusile, and to consist of a great 

 number of short, incurved filaments, which have the power of independent motion, " moving with a 



sort of grasping action." The first six segments are provided 

 with setae only, and have no branchiae. 



The bristles are described by Gosse as pointing upwards 

 and a little outwards, as very fine, and gradually tapering 

 to a point, where they are clothed with the most delicate 

 barbules. The Lug Worm attains the length sometimes 

 of ten inches, and is found on various parts of the coast., 

 in rather shallow water, preferring a station near low-water 

 mark, and burrowing there in the sand, or what perhaps 

 they rather choose in a somewhat muddy bottom. Their 



D, dorsal side ; v. ventral side: n, ganglionic chnin ; i, intes- locality is easily detected, from the Spiral rolls of SRlldv 

 tiual caual ; br, branchiie ; , vascular abdominal trunk; 



a, b. branchial vessels; d, dorsal trunk: h, branch stir- (i-vr>vp>mfnt r>nilprl lilrp rnnp iVirvp flip nrpvtiiT*p nf t,lip Imvrnw. 



rounding the digestive tube ; </, ventral intestinal vessels. * "*J ct 



which is about two feet deep. In this hole the worm 

 lives, with its head downwards ; and the process by which it excavates 

 this dwelling is very curious and interesting the worm swallowing the 

 sand as it scoops it out with its anterior portion, and then lining the 

 hole it makes with a glutinous fluid excreted from the skin. In some 

 parts of the English coast the Lug Worm is very much esteemed by 

 fishermen as an excellent bait. Dr. Johnston gives a most graphic 

 description of the scene which occurs, in the neighbourhood of Berwick 

 Bay, on the occasion of a party of " baiters " going to search for these, to 

 them, valuable worms. " Almost at any season," says he, " when the 

 tide has withdrawn itself within the limits of the ocean, the idler who 

 has wandered down to the shore may, perchance, notice a group of men, 

 girls, and boys hieing thither with a glee that he might almost envy. 

 Some carry a small spade, round, and very sharp on the edge, and 

 mounted with a long handle ; and others have a little shallow bucket, 

 held by a twisted cord fixed in a hole on each side of the brim. They 

 are a picturesque and happy group. They go direct to a sandy bay, 

 which reaches from the shore to the lowest ebb, and is made a little 

 sinuous by the ledge of rocks on each side that define its limits. Over 

 this bay our group disperse themselves, every one as his experience guides 

 him, to the spot most favoured by the Lug Worm. Here, either directed 

 by some peculiarity in the holes of the surface, or often, as I think, by 

 mere guess, the bait-seeker plunges his spade deep into the sand not 

 by pressure of the foot as a gardener does, but by the force of the arm 

 only; and then he throws out the sand, whence his attendant boy or 

 girl picks out the writhing worm, and tosses it into his bucket, the 



bottom of which has been just covered with a little sea-water." The family Clymenidse inhabit long 

 sandy tubes, and have neither branchise nor tentacles, and Arenia fragilis may be taken as a type. 

 The Opheliada? have but few segments, no feelers, no eyes, and one set of braiichize, limited to the 

 middle of the back, one on every segment. There are stellate microscopic bodies in the perivisceral 



AKEMA FltAGILIS. 



