Vol. I, No. 4.] Notes on an Indian Worm. 119 
[N. S.] 
living prey and only uses its host, so to speak, as a beast of burden 
and a stalking horse. Carried along clinging to it by the posterior 
sucker, the body is extended outwards as far as possible and 
waived rapidly in all directions, the ‘‘ head” being invariably free 
of the snail’s shell. As soon as it comes in contact with the body 
of a small crustacean, the anterior sucker takes a firm hold. Its 
ventral surface is covered with small prominences, which are 
not grandular but mere projections of the epidermis. These 
probably give an additional grip, the limbs of the struggling prey 
becoming entangled amongst them. The anterior sete do not 
project free from the ventral surface as in the posterior bundles, 
but are contained in a pocket or introvert in such a way that 
they le below the mouth inside a lower lip or lobe which forms 
the wall of the posterior part of the prostomial sucker. As long 
as the body is elongated they are placed almost parallel to one 
another in a vertical line, leaving the aperture free; but as soon as 
the body is contracted, a rapid twist of their bases takes place and 
they spread out in a fan-like formation, so that the tips of the 
inner setee of each bundle are practically in contact with those of 
the other side. (There is no difference in structure or arrangement 
between these sete and those posterior to them, but the latter are 
considerably shorter). By the movement described the prey is seized 
by the setee and conveyed into the mouth, which opens directly into 
a large pharynx with greatly thickened walls, a small lumen, and 
numerous muscle-bands radiating from it to the body-wall. A 
function of this organ seems to be to crush the prey to death; 
but a similar pharynx is found in species in which the food 
probably does not need crushing. A narrow slightly coiled 
passage leads into the first dilatation of the cesophagus. The 
cells on the surface of the latter probably have some 
digestive function (‘‘liver cells”) and the interior of the crusta- 
cea swallowed become disintegrated very largely in this chamber. 
Even at the moment of the passage of food into the second daila- 
tation, the constriction between the two remains distinct. The 
feeble constriction in the posterior dilatation is a mere fold of the 
walls of the structure, allowing a certain enlargement to take place. 
The intestine which leads from the cesophagus to the anus is rather 
broad: this is rendered necessary by the bulky nature of the 
indigestible parts of the food, for the shells of small Copepods and 
Ostracods pass through the body of the worm practically unaltered, 
even the appendages remaining attached to the trunk in many cases. 
Regarding sexual reproduction I have practically no infor- 
mation. During the period between December and April, through- 
out which I have had living specimens under observation, it does 
not take place and the sexual organs are imperfectly developed. 
Reproduction by fission is, however, active at this season. I find it 
a little difficult to say what is the normal number of segments pre- 
sent in the species, but it appears to be twenty or twenty-one. 
More than this number are, however, produced by budding from 
the penultimate segment, and at firstit is impossible to distinguish 
