292 POLYCHAETA 



melanin has been recognised ; in Cirratulus and Nereis certain 

 lipochromes ; whilst Eulalia viridis contains a pigment allied 

 to bonellein. These various pigments yield different absorption 

 bands when a solution is examined with the spectroscope ; others, 

 however, give no bands, but are distinguished by different chemical 

 reactions. 1 The colour of the intestine of Ckaetopterus has been 

 stated to be due to " modified chlorophyll," but it is quite a 

 different substance. 



When seen in the living and healthy condition, however, these 

 Polychaete worms vie with the very butterflies in their brilliant 

 and beautiful colourings, and though our own worms are not 

 lacking in beauty, many tropical and southern forms exceed them 

 in gayness of tint. Bright reds, orange, yellows, greens, blues, 

 rich violets, and sombre browns are all displayed. 2 



The handsome Terebella nebulosa of our own coasts is coloured 

 bright red, sprinkled with white spots. Nicomaclie lumbricalis 

 is pink, with red girdles. Eunicids are frequently red or brown, 

 and the red gills along each side, together with a brilliant 

 iridescence, render these worms very beautiful. Nereids present 

 a great range of coloration, from light green to sundry tints of 

 brown and red in various combinations. Amongst the Serpulids 

 our common S. vermicularis is a very showy little worm, with its 

 orange body, its red gills splashed with orange, and its orange 

 operculum streaked with red ; and a Southern form, Placostegiis 

 coeruleus, occurring at the Cape of Good Hope, is provided with 

 beautiful la vender -blue gills. Our own Sabellids present ex- 

 amples of beautiful markings on the gills, in different colours or 

 in different shades of the same colour. Amongst Polynoids, P. 

 leucohyba, from the Antilles, has blue elytra ; Heinilepidia erythro- 

 taenia, a long worm from the Cape of Good Hope, has the 

 anterior end of its body covered with light blue elytra, whilst 

 the uncovered part is orange, with a broad magenta-red band 

 along the dorsal surface. 



The Phyllodocids are mostly very brightly coloured. The 

 common P. la-melligera of our coast has a bluish-green body, 

 with olive-green parapodia ; but Lopadorhynchus erythrophyllum, 



1 Lankester, Journ. Anat. and Physiol. 1868, p. 114 ; and 1870, p. 119 ; see also 

 MacMimn, "On the Chromatology of the Blood in some Invertebrates," Quart. J. 

 Micr. Sci. xxv. 1885, p. 469. 



2 For coloured pictures of worms consult Schmarda, " Neue wirbellose Thiere," 2nd 

 part, 1861 ; Milne Edwards in Cuvier's " Regne Animal" (Ed. Disciples de Cuvier). 



