64 AMPHARETID^E. 



The Ampharetidas were included in the Terebellidae by De Quatrefages (1865), the 

 genera Sabellides and Ampldcteis being separated by his Apneumona (Polycirridas) and 

 Hetevoterebellidm. He seems to have had little personal acquaintance with the represen- 

 tatives of the family. 



The following representatives of this family were found by M. Sars 1 (1868) at a 

 depth of 300 fathoms : Amage auricula, Sabellides borealis, S. sexcirrata and Melinna 

 cristata. 



Grube (1871) adopted Malmgren's family, arranging the groups similarly into (a) 

 those with paleae and branchiae ; (6) those with neither palea3 nor dorsal hooks behind 

 them ; and (c) those without nuchal palea3, but with a large hook on each side behind the 

 branchiae. In 1878 (Philippine Annelids) the same author used the term " Ampharetea 

 Mgrn." for the family with a revised grouping of the characters. 



In a section of the anterior region of Amjphicteis foliata Prof. Haswell (1882) gives 

 the general position and proportions of the cutaneous, muscular and alimentary apparatus, 

 the oblique muscles and the nerve-cords being somewhat indistinct, 2 though the author 

 describes each of the latter as having a trigonal outline. 



The Ampharetidse formed with the Terebellidae and Amphictenidae Levinsen's 

 (1888) group Terebelliformia (Grube). He arranged the genera thus : Melinna, Glyphano- 

 stomiim, Sabellides, Ampliarete, Anobothrus, Amphicteis, Sosane, Lysippe, Amage and 

 Samytha. In grouping them with the Terebellidae he simply followed the views of several 

 previous authors. 



An excellent historical summary of the family was given by Fauvel 3 in 1897 at the 

 commencement of his systematic and structural treatise on the group, the type taken 

 being Ampliarete Grvbei, which the author procured abundantly at St. Vaast-la-Hougue. 

 This valuable memoir of Fauvel marks an era in the description of the group and is a 

 credit to the author and to French science. He makes three regions of the cephalic 

 ganglia — a palpary anterior, a central region of two fused ganglia, over which are the 

 eyes, and a posterior or nuchal region — thus mainly following Pruvot and Eacovitza. The 

 nerve-cord has usually two neural canals. The stomato-gastric system is little developed 

 and is attached to the palpary region. The food consists of diatoms, Foraminfera and 

 similar minute organisms carried in by the currents. There is a peri-intestinal sinus. 

 The blood is red in Melinna, green in the other genera. There is a cardiac body. The 

 reproductive elements escape by the posterior nephridia. 



In a recent paper 4 Prof. Stephenson (1913) devotes much attention to the peristaltic 

 and antiperistaltic movements of the gut in the Oligochaets and Polychaets. He considers 

 that the anti-peristaltic action is connected primarily with respiration and not with the 

 circulation, the water entering at the anus being driven forward by ciliary action and 

 the antiperistaltic contractions. Besides representatives of many of the families already 

 dealt with, he describes this condition in the Ampharetidae, Terebellidao, Sabellidae and 

 Serpulidaa. 



1 ' Vidensk.-Selsk. Forhandl./ 1868, sep. copy, p. 10. 



2 ( Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W./ vol. vii, p. 635, pi. xii, fig. 14. 



3 f Bull. Sc. France et Belgique/ t. xxx, p. 1, pis. xv — xxv. 



4 ' Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin./ vol. xlix, JS T o. 14. pp. 779—81 et seq. 



