86 MELINNA ELISABETHS. 



granular contents, and in connection with a gland, also granular, at the side of the shaft. 

 The canal opens on the convex side of the organ a little short of the tip. The shaft is 

 finely striated longitudinally, the striae converging as the hook narrows distally and 

 ceasing within the tip. 



The ordinary hooks are arranged on small ridges beneath the bristle-tufts anteriorly 

 from jbhe fourth segment backward. The lamellae which carry the hooks are at first 

 minute, but by-and-by they project as small flaps with a tendency to a prolongation 

 ventrally. The hooks (Plate CXXV, fig. 1 b) present a rounded crown with four teeth 

 on the front edge, increasing in size from the first to the third, the fourth having a broad 

 base but a shorter fang, for the gulf above the rounded prow is short. The posterior 

 margin is sinuous and the base rounded. Behind the bristled region the lamellae become 

 more prominent and have a small papilla dorsally. 



The tube is coated with greyish mud and lined with tough secretion. Attached 

 externally in Norwegian examples are fragments of shells — it may be in considerable 

 numbers — and occasionally globular arenaceous Foraminifera, with grains of sand in mud, 

 and here and there a leaf of an alga. 



This species was first described by M. Sars 1 (1851) under the title of Sabellides 

 cristata as having eight tentacular cirri borne on a collar or crest with crenulations, 

 fifteen thoracic segments bearing bristles (besides three anterior tufts without mamillae). 



J. Percy Moore 2 (1905) describes Melinna cristata, sp., nov., from the North Pacific 

 (Alaska) as closely resembling Malmgren's species. It differs in the more finely 

 denticulated post-branchial membrane, larger size and more numerous segments. The 

 hooks are similar. 



Augener's 3 Melinna profunda appears to be only a variety of M. cristata, and the 

 hooks agree. 



2. Melinna Elisabeths, Mcintosh, 1914. Plate CXIX, fig. 1— dorsal collar; Plate 



CXXV, figs. 2—2 6— bristle and hooks. 



Specific Characters. — Cephalic region similar to that of M. cristata, but with a slight 

 notch anteriorly and two lateral eminences. The tentacular plate and tentacles often 

 extend beyond it. Tentacles remarkably long. Body similar to that of M. cristata, the 

 number of segments being variable. Branchiae arise from two basal processes, but they 

 do not divide into an anterior and a posterior pair. Dorsal collar shorter, with smaller 

 conical processes than in M. cristata, and often in groups of three. In front of the collar 

 a distinct conical process passes forward to the space between the branchiae. Ventrally 

 the lateral edges of the body-collar are less prominent. The post-branchial hooks have a 

 broad, almost ovoid, flattened shaft, which abruptly narrows anteriorly and is boldly 

 curved into a rounded and apparently solid terminal hook. Bristles as in M. cristata. 

 Hooks usually present only four teeth, and differ slightly in curves, especially at the base. 

 Tube of tough secretion coated with a little mud and occasional fragments of shells. 



1 Sars, < Nyt Mag./ Bel. vi, p. 205. 



2 <Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philadelphia/ December, 1905, p. 851. 



3 < Westind. Polych. Bull. Mus. Comp. Anat., U.S.A./ p. 181, Taf. vi, figs. 126, 127, Taf. vii, 

 fig. 128. 



