140 SYLLIDS. 



thus being present, as in certain Spionidse. As no solenocytes are present the nephridial 

 functions are performed by the special cells of the organ. This author agrees with 

 Pruvot in thinking that the segmental organs have a mechanical function (by resistance) 

 during locomotion, but this appears to require further elucidation. 



Though a conspicuous feature in the family no case of branching or lateral budding 

 occurs amongst the British Syllidge. Langerhans describes an example of Syllis variegata 

 with two heads, whilst Syllis ramosa of the ' Challenger ' has a furor for budding at all 

 points. Neither has the Syllis vivipara of Krohn 1 from Nice, as recently and carefully 

 described and figured by Goodrich 2 at Naples, been hitherto captured in our waters. 

 The Neapolitan form has the head of a Syllis, with moderately long tentacles and cirri, 

 which are all articulated, the proboscis has apparently about ten papillae and a single 

 tooth towards the front in extrusion, and simple tips to the terminal pieces of the 

 compound bristles. Mesnil 3 is inclined to consider all such cases (which are not to be 

 confounded with parasitic forms in the body-cavity of Syllids) as associated with 

 parthenogenesis. 



Novel instances of collateral budding have been lately described by H. Parlin 

 Johnson 4 in Trypano syllis ingens and in T. gemmipara, the former from Pacific Grove, 

 California, between tide-marks, and the latter from Puget Sound. In the last-mentioned 

 the buds, about fifty in number, arise in front of the last twenty-four segments of the 

 diminished caudal region of the annelid. They form a tuft like a series of fronds of a 

 minute fern, have no swimming-bristles, only a median strand for an alimentary canal, 

 two large nerve-cords, two large eyes, dorsal and ventral cirri, spines, and bristles. Both 

 species approach generally the Syllis gigantea of the ' Challenger,' 5 though no buds were 

 present in the latter. Mr. Cyril Crossland, who has done such able work on the Annelids, 

 tells me that he procured a Syllid with a rosette of buds at the posterior end, at Wasin, 

 British East Africa, living in a red sponge common in ten fathoms in that locality. The 

 annelids are bright orange, with four brown eyes. The dorsal cirri are annulated, very 

 long, and of a still deeper hue. The tentacles and ventral cirri are shorter, but also 

 annulated. The rosette of young is of the same colour as the parent, but each is shorter 

 and broader, and no cirri are visible under a lens. Their tails keep waving in the water, 

 the attachment being only by the head. Mr. Crossland's forms were collected before the 

 publication of the American author was issued, but his species is still undescribed. 



Forms commensalistic in sponges like the foregoing and Syllis ramosa of the 

 c Challenger ' lead the way to what appears to be a parasitic Autolytus, found by 

 Mr. Crossland, also at Wasin, Bast Africa. " This annelid was attached by the extruded 

 proboscis to a specimen of a yellow Nemertean, another to a Polynoid, seven examples to 

 Nicidon gracilis, n.s., and a single specimen to another Niciclon of the same species. The 

 Syllids cannot be pulled off their prey without rupture except in the case of the soft 

 Nemertean. In the polychset hosts the point of attachment is always near the parapodia. 



1 < Arch. f. Naturges./ Bd. xxxv, p. 197 (1869). 



2 ' Journ. Linn. Soc./ vol. xxviii, p. 105, pi. xiii (1900). 



3 ' Compt. Rend. Soc. Biol./ Paris, vol. liii, p. 270 (1901). 



4 c Biol. Bullet./ vol. ii, No. 6 (1900), and ' American Naturalist/ vol. xxxvi, No. 424 (April, 1902). 



5 < Annel. < Challenger/ p. 193. 



