TUBICOL^. 
131 
Amphitrite, Cuv.* * * * § 
The Amphitrites are easily recognized by the golden coloured setae, 
arranged like a crown, or the teeth of a comb, in one or two rows, 
on the anterior part of their head, where they probably serve as a 
means of defence, or perhaps enable the animal to crawl, or to col- 
lect the materials of its tube. Numerous tentacula encircle the 
mouth, and on each side of the fore part of the back are pectiniform 
branchiae. 
Some of them construct light tubes of a regularly conical figure, 
which they carry about with them. Their gilded setae form two 
combs, whose teeth incline downwards. Their capacious and fre- 
quently flexed intestine is usually filled with sand f- Such is the 
Awph. aiiricoma belgica, Gm. ; Pall., Miscel., IX, 3 — 5. Its 
tube is two inches long, and formed of variously coloured round 
granules 
Amph. aiiricoma capensis, Pall., Miscel., IX, i, 2. From the 
South Seas ; its thin and polished tube appears to be transversely 
fibrous, and formed of some dessicated, soft, and stringy sub- 
stance. It is a larger species §. 
There are others Avhich inhabit artificial tubes fixed to various 
bodies. Their gilded setae form several concentric crowns on their 
head, from which results an operculum that seals up their tube when 
they contract, but the two parts of which can separate. Each foot 
is furnished with a cirrus. The body is terminated behind in a 
Lin. Trans., XII, 11 ; — T. nehulosa, Id. Ib., 12, 2; — T. constrictor, Id. Ib., 13, 1 ; 
— T. venusta, Ib., 2 ; he also calls one of them T. cirrhata, Ib., XII, 1 ; but which 
does not appear to be the same as that of Miiller. Add T. variabilis, Risso, &c. 
N.B. M. Savigny makes two other dmsions 'of Terebellse, the T. Phyzeli-E, 
which have but two pairs of branchiae, and the T. Idali.®, that have but one pair. 
Among the latter would come the Amphitrite cristata, Miill., Zool. Dan., Ixxi, 1,4; 
Amph. ventricosa, Bose., Ver., I, vi, 4 — 6. 
* This genus, as it stands in Miiller, Brugi^i’es, Gmelin, and Lamarck, also in- 
cludes some Terebellce B.nd Sabellce. In 1824, Diet, des Sc. Nat. II, p. 78, I reduced 
it to its actual limits ; since then, M. Lamarck has changed my divisions into 
genera, his Pectinari.® and Sabellari^, termed AphictenyE and Hermell.e 
by Savigny. The Amphitrites of Lamarck are my Sabellal. M. Savigny, on 
the contrary, makes it the name of a famOy. 
•b They are the Pectixari^, Lam. ; Aphictex.e, Savig. ; Chrysodontes, 
Oken ; and the Ci&ten.e of Leach. This perpetual changing of names — and in 
this particular case there was not even the pretext of a change of limits in the group 
— will finally end in rendering nomenclature a much more difficult study than that of 
facts. 
+ The same as the Sabella belgica, Gm., Klein., tab. I, 5, Echinod., xxxiii. A, B, 
and as the Amph. aiiricoma, Miill., Zool. Dan. xxvi, of which Brugi^res has made his 
Amphitrite dor6e. 
§ The same as the Sabella chrysodon, Gm., Berg., Stock. Mem., 1765, IX, 1,3 ; 
as the Sabella capensis. Id., Stat., Miill., Nat. Syst., VI, xlx, 67, which is a mere 
copy of Bergius ; as the Sabella indica, Abildgaart, Berl. Schr., IX, iv. See also 
Mart. Slabber, Fless. Mem., I, ii, l — 3. 
K 
