& 
Bucuanan—Report on Polychets. 171 
in L. Kinbergi, Baird, on the other hand, the tentacle is shorter 
than the palps, and there ¢s a spine to the ventral sete. 
In the specimen in the Irish collection the median tentacle is 
long and very slender, but it is still only about half the length of 
the palps. The ventral setz, such as are complete (a great many 
were broken at the tips when I received the specimen), show mostly 
no trace of a spine. One or two, however, did show a sort of 
rudimentary or (?) broken spine. I have figured both kinds of 
setze on Pl. rx., fig. 1 (4. and B.). The specimen seemed to me, 
therefore, to be intermediate between the two so-called species in 
question, and I was inclined to agree with Malmgren and M‘Intosh 
that they were one. But then another difficulty arose. Ehlers 
is, I believe, the only writer who mentions on which segments the 
elytra occur. In his L. Kinbergi they are on segments 2, 4, 9, 7, 
. .. . 23, 26, 29. In the specimen I had before me they are 
on segments 2,4,57,.... 238, 25, 28, 31. Hoping to throw 
some light on the question I went to the British Museum to 
examine Baird’s original specimens of Z. [inbergi, and what speci- 
mens there are of L. filicornis with regard to the three points at issue: 
the length of the tentacles, the spine of the ventral seta, and the 
position of the elytra. In all the specimens, both of Baird’s L. 
Kinberyi (of which there are a large number, all from the North 
Sea off the Shetlands’) and of those labelled Z. filicornis, where the 
median tentacle is still present, it is shorter than the palps, being 
trom + to 3 their length. Taking several of Baird’s L. Kinberge 
at random, and examining their ventral sete, I was surprised to 
find that the greater number of these on most specimens had no 
spines (fig. 1a.); sometimes there were some with rudimentary 
spines (fig. 1 B.) beside those with none, but only on a few speci- 
mens did I find well-developed spines on the ventral setee (fig. 1 c.), 
7 T may as well mention here that in the bottle labelled Z. Kinbergi, by Baird, there 
are present besides the Laetmatonices a good number of specimens, looking at first sight 
not unlike them, which are not Letmatonices at all, but which are really the Aphro- 
dite obtecta of Vhlers (Joc. cit. p. 42, pl. vi.), so that the specimen which I obtained 
at Plymouth, and mentioned in my Report to the British Association last year as being 
found for the first time on British Coasts, was not really new to Britain, though it had 
not been recorded before. 
It is owing to the kindness of the authorities of the British Museum that am 
able to comment on the specimens there; and I should like here to express my thanks 
for the facilities that have been given me. 
