APODA, 345 
SIPUNCULUS, Gm. 
The body is cylindrical and elongated, the skin thick and wrinkled 
in both directions. The mouth is provided with a sort of proboscis 
susceptible of retraction and protrusion by the action of large in- 
ternal muscles, and the anus is more or less approximated ‘to the 
base of that organ. The intestine proceeds from the mouth to near 
the opposite extremity, and then returns, twining spirally round 
itself. The only matters found in it are sand and fragments of shells. 
Numerous vessels appear to unite it with the external envelope, be- 
sides which, a thread extends along one of its sides which may pos- 
sibly be neryous. Two long bursz, situated anteriorly, open exte- 
riorly a little below the anus, and near this last orifice, internally, 
we sometimes find a bundle of ramous vessels which may be organs 
of respiration. 
These animals are found in the sands of the sea, like the Areni- 
cole and Thalasseme, and like them are used as bait by the fisher- 
men. 
S. edulis, Cuv.; Lumbricus ‘edulis, Gm.3; Pall., Spicil. Zool., 
X,1, 7. This species is eaten by the Chinese inhabitants of 
Java, who procure it from the sands by means of slender bam- 
boos prepared for the purpose(1). 
Other and rather small species—Sp. levis, Sip. verrucosus, 
Cuy.—perforate submarine rocks and live in their cavities. 
BonE.iiA, Rolando. 
Here the body is oval and furnished with a proboscis formed of a 
double lamina susceptible of great elongation and forked at the ex- 
tremity. The anus is at the opposite extremity of the body. The 
intestine is very long and frequently flexed, and near the anus we 
(1) I cannot perceive where this species differs from the Vermis macrorhyncho- 
teros, Rondel., of the salt-ponds of Languedoc, which is the Sipunculus nudus of 
Linnzus. 
The Sipunculus saccatus appears to be a specimen divested of its epidermis. 
In one species the epidermis is pilose, in another the skin is entirely coriace- 
ous; neither of them is mentioned by authors. 
The seas of India produce one that is nearly two feet in length. 
Vou. IV.—2 T 
