THE WORMS 



65 



and thus tlie little worm develops, as it were, witliin its own larva, 

 which shrivels and is cast off. 



The Pink Ril)bon-"Worm, fMeckelia rosea J, is smaller than .¥. 

 imjens, never being more than a1)out ten inches long and one-qnar- 

 ter of an inch wide. It has a thread-like proboscis which can be 



Fig-. 34; upper. EIBBON-WOKM. 

 Lower. OPAL-W(.>RM. 



shot out with remarkable rapidity, and is fully ten Inches long. This 

 worm is dull red or flesh colored, and lives in sand near low water 

 mark. The sand adheres tenaciously to the slime-covered body of 

 the worm. 



The Sea Mouse, (Aphrodite aculeata, Fig. 35). This remarka- 

 ble worm is oval in shape, and about three Inches long and one and 

 one-half wide. The skin is dull brown but the sides are covered 

 with numerous hair-like bristles, many of 

 which glisten with brilliant green, red and 

 yellow iridescence. The head bears a pair of 

 tapering feelers, and there are about forty 

 pairs of legs provided with short, stiff, brown- 

 colored bristles, which extend outward at the 

 edges of the flat lower surface This worm 

 lives in mud below tide level, and is found 

 from Long Island northward, and is abundant 

 on the northern coasts of Europe. 



The Clam Worms, (Nereis, Fig. 06), are 

 very common in muddy beaches where they 

 live between tide levels in burrows lined with 

 mucous. They are segmented, or ringed, each ring of the body 

 bearing a pair of flapper-like gill-feet. The head segment, however, 

 is more complex, for it bears ten feelers, two fleshy "palps," and 



Fig. 



SEA-MOUSE. 



