WOODWORTH : THE PALOLO WORM. 15 



on motusaga day. A microscopical examination of the salefu scum 

 shows it to consist of a gelatinous slime in which are grains of sand, 

 appendages, fragments and casts of Entomostraca, and a varied detritus 

 of the seething life inhabiting the reefs, including many ova of various 

 kinds in different stages of segmentation. The salefu may be looked 

 upon as a manifestation of the awakening of the " Palolo " previous to 

 its swarming or marriage-swim ; an annual activity of countless numbers 

 of annelids resulting in a discharge into the water of the deposits 

 accumulated in the galleries and crevices of the reef-flats. The small 

 annelid of motusaga day is what I have called Eunice dubia (Figs. 

 4-6, 15) and is doubtless what Friedlaender speaks of as the " Pseudo- 

 palolo." The " Palolo " appears in some localities in such enormous 

 numbers that the surface of the sea has been likened to a thick 

 vermicelli or macaroni soup, and I have seen a native with his bare 

 hands fill a large pail with the worms in a few minutes. In Fiji I have 

 seen the natives testing the water by wetting their hands and smelling 

 it, and in this way detect the presence of the worm before it had been 

 seen. I was unable to learn of this method in Samoa. The " Palolo " 

 is eaten raw, but more usually baked in leaves of the breadfruit or 

 boiled. The mass resembles cooked spinach in appearance, the whole 

 taking on the deep green color of the female. In taste and smell it is 

 not unlike fresh fish roe. It is eaten with impunity by both old and 

 young, and in Fiji the water in which it is boiled is sometimes given to 

 the sick. 



The " Palolo " is known from Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga. It occurs on 

 all of the larger of the Samoan Islands and throughout the Fiji group. 

 Early records of the time of its appearance in Fiji have been kept at 

 Lakamba from 1845-1854, and at Levuka from 1854-1858. In every 

 case its appearance was in a quartering of the moon, which is true 

 also of Whitmee's records for Savaii in Samoa (1862-1868) and the 

 later records from both groups of islands. 



The earliest recorded observations of the swarming of annelids are 

 those of Rumphius (1705) for the " Wawo " of Amboina for the years 

 1684 to 1694. The recent " Siboga " expedition brought back speci- 

 mens of this worm which were studied by Horst (1905) who named it 

 Lysidice oele (see also Weber, 1902). As in the "Palolo" its annual 

 appearance is directly related to a phase of the moon, as it makes its 

 appearance in March and April only on the second and third nights 

 after full moon. This relation of swarming of annelids to phases of the 

 moon is noted by Mayer (1900 and 1902) for Eunice fucata, and Izuka 



