176 



Prof. M'Intosh's Notes from the 



Arem'cola, and yet the latter has been found equally mature 

 in October. The Polynoidse especially are early in this 

 respect both in Europe and America. None of their pelagic 

 larvse, however, have hitherto been found at St. Andrews m 

 January. Hensen*, again, in the Baltic procured only a very 

 few larvae of Polydora during this month. 



Tomopteris at St. Andrews occurred on many occasions ; 

 indeed its absence from the tow-nets was rarer than its 

 presence. 



Sagittce of various sizes were abundant and some were 

 large, with advanced reproductive 

 organs, as Lo Bianco and others 

 found at Naples. Their occurrence 

 in large numbers in winter has long 

 been known f, and the multitudes of 

 fine living examples stranded on the 

 beach sparkle like needles of glass. 

 The larger forms (about 1 inch) were 

 captured in the midwater-nets and the 

 smaller (about \ inch) in the surface- 

 and bottom-nets. A considerable 

 number of the larger specimens had a 

 parasitic Nematoid in the alimen- 

 tary canal, while some presented a 

 Trematode in the same situation (see 

 woodcut) . 



Next month (February) the pelagic 

 Annelids were represented by females 

 of Autolytus with the ventral ovige- 

 rous sac and males. The midwater- 

 net also captured an epitocous Nereis 

 (olim Iphinerets fucicola), wliich in Trematode at anal septum 

 former years had been tossed on shore ° iiagitta. 



by storms. Young Polynoidai {Har- 



mothoe imhricata &c.) escaped from the ova in the tanks, but 

 none were recognized in the contents of the nets. The larval 

 Nerine with the reticulated investment, and which has also 

 been found in the Forth in February by Messrs. Cunningham 

 and Ramage |, and larval examples of Polydora also occurred. 

 In regard to the latter, Hensen found this month and the 

 next most prolitic of them in the Baltic, and he gives the 

 spawning-period as from October to April. The bristles 



* Fiinfte Bericlit der Komission &c. (Berlin, 1887). 



t Vide Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 4tli ser. xiv. p. 1-55 (1874). 



\ Trans. R. Soc. Edinb. vol. xxxiii. pt. 3, p. 638, pi. xxxvii. 



?. 2h. 



