314 Eev. T. Hincks on Lar sabellarum 



the original. It may, perhaps, be admitted tliat the skilful 

 pencil of the artist has introduced the slightest touch of cari- 

 cature ; but it really only serves to bring out more strikingly 

 the remarkable peculiarities of the creature. 



The most marked characteristics of the genus Lar are to be 

 found in the number and disposition of the tentacles, and in the 

 curious head-like lobe in which the body of the polypite 

 terminates above. The arms are reduced to two, which spring- 

 close together from the base of a prominent bilabiate proboscis 

 endowed with great mobility ; they are smooth, not muricated 

 or roughened with clusters of thread-cells, and very extensile. 

 These two tentacles face the mouth-bearing proboscis, and act 

 with it in the capture of food ; they are frequently jerked in 

 the direction of the latter organ, which is furnished with two 

 broad lips, and is itself capal)le of the freest and most energetic 

 movement. The proboscis is marked off from the rest of the 

 body by a well-defined constriction ; near the top of it occurs 

 a small space, which is thickly paved with thread-cells, 

 forming a kind of boss a little below the summit (PI. XIX. 

 fig. 2, a) . The polypites are fusiform, with a trace of brownish 

 colour a little below the terminal lobe, perfectly sessile, and 

 quite naked; they are very active and lively in their movements, 

 and are constantly throwing the body and tentacles into the * 

 most fantastic attitudes. " The ludicrously close resemblance" 

 which they bear to the human figure has already been noticed 

 by Gosse, and will be apparent to any one on a reference to the 

 Plate (PI. XIX. fig. 1). In this genus, then, we have a most 

 interesting modification of the structure that prevails amongst 

 the Hydroida. Instead of a wreath of tentacles immediately 

 surrounding the mouth, or several whorls distributed over the 

 body, we have here two tentacles only, placed on one side and 

 opposed to a highly developed movable proboscis, which acts 

 energetically with them in the capture of prey, and compensates 

 for the reduced number of the prehensile arms. 



Gosse was not so fortunate as to meet with the reproductive 

 zooids, and was therefore unable to give a satisfactory diagnosis 

 of the genus ; but the Ilfracombe specimen supplied this de- 

 ficiency, and has shown that the gonosome, no less than the 

 trophosome, is marked by very distinctive characters. 



The fertile polypites oi Lar (PI. XIX. fig. l,ff) are distri- 

 buted along the creeping stolon, amongst the alimentary zooids, 

 and bear a strong general resemblance to those of Hydractinia. 

 They arc slender, somewhat filiform bodies, destitute of tcn- 

 tacula, and terminated at the free extremity by a globular en- 

 largement, in which many thread-cells are imbedded ; they are 

 generally inferior in size to the alimentary polypites. The re- 



