AND OTHER MEDITEREAITEAN LOCALITIES. 5 



'Where the depth is much greater but, not being as protected, 

 Abe sea will often be more agitated. 



Aetea ANGuiisrA, forma eecta, HincJcs. (PI. 1. figs. 1-5.) 



In Eapallo I saw, in March, a large number of specimens with 

 jsi> small transparent ovicell, at the top of the tubular prolon- 

 gation which has been called a peristome. In most cases there 

 were four divisions in the ovam, but in a few there were eight. 

 The ovicellular wall is very thin and delicate ; and unfortunately 

 the material at command has not enabled me to study the ovicell 

 .and ova as fully as I hoped. 



The discovery of an ovicell is extremely interesting, as the 

 genus has always been described as without one ; in fact, 

 Jullien * created a " tribus " Inovicellata for the Aeteidae ; but 

 classification based upon the absence of a character is always 

 rather risky. 



What Mr. Hiocks calls the zooecium in this family, Jullien 

 {loc. cit. p. 25) would call the peristome. Now, while Jullien 

 is correct in refusing to call this tubular prolongation a zooecium, 

 it does not seem that this tube, which has a hinged opening at 

 :the termination, should be compared with a peristome, which is a 

 prolongation beyond the opercular opening. Jullien seems to 

 fancy that he was the first to notice that the polypide did not 

 live entirely in this part, but was also in the portion which 

 Mr. Hineks speaks of as the " elongate subfusiform body." On 

 reference to Smitt's figures f, and to my figure and the text of the 

 same paper J, he would have seen that it had been appreciated that 

 .the polypide is not only lodged in the upright portion, as Busk 

 erroneously believed, but is also in the lower part. I think that 

 both Hineks and Jullien must have overlooked my paper. In 

 one case in which the ovicell contained a large unfissured ovum, 

 .the tentacles and stomach were mostly in the tubular prolongation, 

 and the fusiform body was nearly filled up with the ovarium in 

 which there were at least four young ova. 



Aetea truncata also occurs near Rapallo §. 



* ' Mission du Cap Horn,' p. 23. 



t Hafs-Bry. Utv. 1865, pi. ii. figs. 11, 12. 



X Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 5, vol. iii. p. 114, pi. xv. fig. 7. 



§ I have to add to the hst given in my paper on the " Bryozoa of Naples,' 

 ;and a supplementary one given in a note to a paper in the ' Ti'ansactions of the 

 Microscopical Society,' ser. 2, vol. v. p. 6, the foUovring Neapolitan species : — 

 Aetea truncata, Landsborough ; Bugula spicata, Hineks ; B. ditrupm, Busk ; 

 £. neritina, L. ; Scrupocellaria BerthoUetii, Aud. ; 8. Delilii, Aud. ; S. in,' 



