296 Miscellaneous. 



of the dredgings organized by M. de Lacaze-Duthiers at his experi- 

 mental zoological laboratory, to meet with one of these intermediate 

 types undoubtedly very nearly allied to the singular animals for 

 which Rathke and Schneider created the genera Rhamphogordius and 

 Polygordius, but most resembling Polygordius by its posterior ex- 

 tremity. To avoid the creation of new generic names, I shall desig- 

 nate it Pohjgordius Villoti. I choose this specific name in memory 

 the fine memoir of M. Villot on Gordius, to which Schneider, in 

 the following phrase, has so singularly compared the animals in 

 question : — " It may be said that the Polygordii are annulated 

 Gordii in the same sense that the Lumbrici, the Eunices, and the 

 Hermellce may be regarded as annulated Ascarides." 



This, as may be seen, does not imply a very close relationship. 

 Nevertheless the author of the ' Monographic der Nematoden ' em- 

 ploys expressions which might, in this respect, lead to error, especially 

 where he speaks of Polygordius as a Helminth, without giving notice, 

 otherwise than in a table of classification, that he gives the name of 

 Helminthes to the subkingdom or, as the transformists say, the whole 

 stock of Vermes. 



In fact the Polygordius which we examined at lloscoff is distin- 

 guished from allied animals by its length, which is more than one 

 decimetre, while the Polygordius laeteus and purpureas of Schneider 

 only attain a length of about ten millimetres. The diameter of our 

 animal is hardly a millimetre in the middle region of the body ; it 

 becomes thinner towards the anterior region, which terminates by 

 bifurcating so as to form two little horns, about one millimetre in 

 length and slightly widened at their base. The body likewise be- 

 comes attenuated behind, where it terminates in an obtuse point, 

 which appeared to be destitute of the papillae characteristic of 

 Polygordius purpureus. Our species is of a flesh-colour, darker in 

 the female, lighter and as it were milky in the male, at least near 

 the time of sexual maturity. The sexes are separated in these 

 animals, as in the greater part of the Nemertians and Annelides, 

 which they approach in many respects, although they cannot be 

 placed in either of the two groups. The agility of these worms is 

 extreme : their cephalic region is constantly in motion ; and they 

 bury themselves and travel with remarkable ease in the coarse sand 

 in which they live, and where they are found in company with 

 Dentalium and Amphioxus, at depths from which the dredge brings 

 up also Terebratulina caput-serpentis, Solaster papposus, Palmipes 

 membranaceus, and particularly a charming species of Zoanthus, 

 which comes unluckily to invalidate a result which has lately been 

 a little prematurely advanced before the Academy. Notwithstanding 

 its great vivacity, Polygordius Villoti is one of the most fragile of 

 animals ; it breaks with great facility, and often spontaneously, when 

 we try to preserve it in captivity, so that speedily no more is left 

 than a small fragment of the anterior extremity. This property is 

 in connexion with the partitioning of the general cavity. 



Outwardly the body does not appear to be annulated ; the mouth 

 is inferior, a little way from the anterior extremity of the body, 



