LANICE CONCHILEGA. 145 



strengthening of the filaments by larger particles renders the whole coarser and 

 less graceful. 



After a severe storm, as, for example, on October 15th, 1863, the West Sands, at 

 St. Andrews, from the bridge at the Swilcan Burn outward were covered with vast 

 multitudes of the tubes of Lanice conchilega. They especially abounded at the lines 

 of mid-tide and low water, where the ebbing tide threw them into broad ridges with 

 intervening grooves. They ranged from the very rough to the membranous, and almost 

 all were empty. It was thus chiefly a loss of home, and not a loss of life. So vast were 

 the masses that a civic authority thought they might be utilised as manure, but their 

 composition gave slight basis for such a view, although they might be useful when 

 applied to a clayey soil. 



The absence of definition in Delle Chiaje's figures (1828 and 1841) and the brevity 

 of his descriptions make the diagnosis of his Amjphitrite Toncli somewhat uncertain, but 

 it is probably the present species. 



Daly ell (1853) gives an interesting account of the habits of this species in confine- 

 ment, especially in connection with the formation of its tube and the action of the 

 tentacles. It is for the most part nocturnal. He termed it the sand-mason. 



De Quatrefages (1865) included this species under the titles of Terebella conchilega 

 and T. pruclens. 



Claparede (1868) gave the species only sixteen pairs of bristle-bundles, and considered 

 that Delle Chiaje's AmpMtrite Tondi was only a ripe form of this species. He found a 

 greenish hue present at the period of sexual maturity due to a multitude of fatty cells in 

 the coelom. 



On May 6th, 1878, Griard communicated to the French Academy a note on an annelid 

 which was formerly considered as a young Terebella, and which he termed Wartelia, thus 

 conferring on the young stage of a Terebellid a separate title. 



Cosmovici (1880), mentions two pairs of segmental organs and organs of Bojanus 

 in this species, one pair of the latter situated in front and the other behind the cephalic 

 diaphragm. In shape the segmental organs, which are separated from the organs 

 of Bojanus and lie behind them, are like urns with a crenate and much ciliated mouth, 

 and he figures the ova attached to the narrow end of the funnel whilst the inner edge of the 

 funnel is prolonged as a narrow process toward the nerve-cords. He held that the repro- 

 ductive elements were discharged through the funnel. The organ of Bojanus has no 

 external aperture. The genital glands have, he observed, a close association with the 

 segmental organ and its vessels. He states that he has noticed T. conchilega depositing 

 eggs in May at Roscoff, and the ova were very numerous. This author, therefore, is at 

 variance with the results of those who have examined the structure of the nephridia in 

 the Polychaets, and J. T. Cunningham's subsequent observations are more in accordance 

 with the actual structure. 



Langerhans (1880) gives frontal outlines of the hooks, showing that anteriorly five 

 teeth occur above the main fang, whilst posteriorly three rows are above it, no less than 

 fourteen points being shown. 



Marenzeller (1884) included the Terebella gigantea of Montagu 1 under this species 



* J l Linn. Trans./ vol. xii, p. 341, Tab. xi. 



188 



