exlviii Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XV, 
aot on the N.-E. Frontier of Assam which I described under the 
8 1 2 
recently-discovered genus becomes very interest ing and is er aes ble to 
the distribution of the well-known genera Licassis and Semiplotn 
The development om breeding habits of a politic water 
polychaet worm from Madras. ih . Gopata ATYER. 
In the piece of backwater near the nteer Garde Rifle Range 
on the road to Adyar, a number of pear-shaped stalked spawn masses can 
be observed almost throughout the yea They are very numerous 
during the hot season, less so during the. rainy months. Some of them 
are ers, big, and all of them have their stalks running down into the mud 
where each one becomes oo tag the bagchiwied inhabited by a 
t enu 
numbers of eggs and young larvae. Tt is 5 suggested (a) that the jelly - 
fords protection to the e ggs from the sun’s rays when the tide runs ou 
and leaves the m exposed ; 
(6) that ane a affords a comparatively safe place of development 
e initial stages ; 
(c) that ithe. jelly prevents wide emcee of the larvae, i.e. adapta- 
to backvitar conditi 
paths stage is absent. There is however a pr cla igg sig 
be icra ed by me tatrochophore ete nectochaeta stages The 
first two stages are passed cosas io aoe oar third s xa outside ch 
creeping at the bottom. A fre ge is absent, probably 
oe of the greater part of the wae violas being passed in the 
jelly 
The ork ceen and a = setae are ite Rashme In 
very young worms three kinds of setae can be observed: pillary 
unjointed setae, compound a with a awn terminal inkpsiee nasa 
pound setae with a moderately long terminal bla e last kind, it is 
suggested, is deri by the een oe the terminal blade of the 
ariety. In adult worms obtained by digging from the clay, 
setae with a short toriainil blade are not found at all. 
Unjointed capillary setae and falcigerous setae ar fd’ in the anterior 
> an pillary in r 1 condition is 
ry late. The worms grown in the laboratory from eggs up to 
late stage develop compoun ae with a terminal blade, and 
capillary setae in the “haps asses segments. But the terminal blades 
of the compound se tae elongate, bringing about _ is ate condition. 
When more than a hundred and fif fifty segmen e been formed the 
formation of the compound setae is given ye ao ‘geniers setae alone 
are developed at the posterior region. Thus fixity of setose characters is 
Larval eyes disappear and their place is taken by a pair of adult 
