620 Memoirs of the Indian Museum. [Vol. V, 



a gradual sequence, the uppermost being the shortest and smallest. The greatest 

 number of brush setae noted in any foot was 4. The dorsal capillary setae lie close 

 to the inner fillet, emerging inside it in the anterior region (text-fig. 13d). In the 

 ventral division there is a single compound setae in the front of the foot, and a bifid 

 winged hook on the lower margin. All the other setae are simple capillaries. The 

 ventral setae are shorter than the dorsal, and the blades are more distinctly flattened. 



In the posterior segments the setigerous lobe is smaller in proportion to the 

 dorsal and ventral cirri. The setae are few and simple. There is one spine, one 

 ventral hook, and 1-3 brush setae with somewhat coarser teeth than those in the 

 anterior segments. 



The smaller specimens differ from the above description in many respects, but 

 these differences are due to age and size. The specimen examined was 66 mm. long, 

 composed of 220 segments, with traces of others forming in front of the anal segment. 

 The eyes are larger and more distinct, and are not hidden by the collar of the peri- 

 stomium (fig. 13A). The first branchia appears on the 22nd foot, and the maximum 

 number of filaments is 5, on segments 145-165. The branchiae are absent from the 

 posterior 20 segments. The maximum number of spines present in any foot is 4. 

 The first brush seta appears in the 20th foot, and the first ventral hook on the 26th 

 foot. The capillary setae appear in the ventral division of the 80th foot, and there 

 are no compound setae behind the 160th foot. Genital products were not observed 

 in any of the specimens. 



This species belongs to the M. sanguinea group. The most remarkable character 

 is the appearance of the capillary setae in the ventral division of the feet in the 

 middle and posterior parts of the body. It is improbable, considering the size of the 

 larger specimens, that this is a larval character, especially as these setae appear at 

 relatively the same position in both large and small specimens, viz. near the begin- 

 ning of the middle third of the body. The same proportion is also seen in the posi- 

 tion of the last compound seta, viz. segment 150 in the small specimen, and segment 

 240 in the large one. In this character there is a tendency towards M. mossambica, 

 Grube, which has no compound setae. 



This species has also some resemblance to M. calif ornica, Moore (1909, p. 251), 

 but differs in the shape of the head, relative length of the tentacles, number and dis- 

 tribution of the branchiae, etc. M. calif ornica has two kinds of brush setae in 

 the middle segments, one kind with many, the other with few teeth. Moore's speci- 

 mens were incomplete behind, so that no comparison can be made as to the arrange- 

 ment of the setae, a feature so characteristic for M. gravelyi. 



Dr. Annandale writes in litt, of this species : — (f Another interesting Eunicid was 

 obtained only in very small numbers, though actually abundant everywhere round 

 the lake where the shores are muddy. This species produced large balloon-like masses 

 of gelatinous spawn anchored to the mud by a tubulous structure and known to the 

 Ooriyas as nowdar." It is possible that this may be the same species as was found 

 by Borradaile (1901, p. 714). In a lagoon at Jaffna, on the north coast of Ceylon, 

 he found a species of Marphysa which liberated its eggs in a pear-shaped mass of 



