EPHESIA GRACILIS. 47 



Genus LXXXIX.— Ephesia, Rathke, 1 1843. 



Sphser odor urn, CErsted ; Berbyce, Thompson ; Pollicita, Johnston. 



Head bluntly rounded, with numerous papillae; four minute eye-specks. Mouth 

 inferior. Body elongated, slightly narrowed anteriorly and more distinctly posteriorly, 

 where it ends in a small rounded tip with a globular papilla on each side. Segments 

 about 120. Surface with numerous small papillae, and a series of larger globular papillae 

 on the feet dorsally. Bristles simple, with tips like a bill-hook or with a jointed tip, as 

 in Autolysis. Proboscis elongate, clavate, smooth. Nerve-cords separate. Segmental 

 organs normal. Ova circular, large, with minutely dotted capsule. 



Ephesia (his Sphserodorum) was included by CErsted 3 under the family Ariceae, the 

 sub-division Ariciae nereidae, and the eighth germs. His main characters were the linear 

 rounded body, numerous papillae in place of tentacles along the entire margin of the head ; 

 eyes four; in place of branchiae a series of globular processes with a terminal papilla 

 and with minute papillae between them; uniramous feet; tail with two globular cirri. 

 He thought it a transition-form between the Ariceidae and Nereidae (especially the 

 Grlyceridae) . The globular processes contain vermiform bodies, but are not ovaries. 



Levinsen (1883) made two genera of the Sphaerodoridae, viz., Ephesia, Rathke, and 

 Splmrodovum (non (Ersted), the latter having six processes on the head instead of two. 



Cams (1885) omitted, probably from an oversight, this family from his ' Prodromus 

 Faunae Mediterraneae.' 



1. Ephesia gracilis, H. Rathke, 1843. Plate LXXXVIII, fig. 10; Plate XCV, fig. 9— 



posterior end ; Plate CIII, fig. 9 — bristle. 

 Specific Characters. — Head bluntly rounded, with papillae on the free border, a 

 median and two lateral being longer; four minute eye-specks, the anterior pair nearer 

 each other. Mouth opening immediately behind the tip of the snout. Body reaching 

 21 inches, elongate, segments about 120, tapering a little anteriorly and more distinctly 

 posteriorly, where it ends in a small rounded tip with a large globular papilla on each 

 side. Lateral papillae commence behind the snout, increase in size to the middle of the 

 body, and again diminish posteriorly. Thinly distributed, small papillae in rows occur on. 

 the general surface. Colour, 3 straw-yellow in front, rest pale brown or dull reddish- 

 brown, the hues being darker over the intestine, and some have a faint lilac or purplish 

 tint in the centre. Foot has dorsally the opaque, whitish, globular process, then the 

 setigerous lobe hispid with papillae at the extremity, and bearing a spine and simple 

 bristles with the tip in the form of a bill-hook. 



Synonyms. 



1843. Ephesia gracilis, Ratlike. Fauna Norweg., Nova Acta Acad. Leop.-Car., xx, l,p. 176, Tab. vii, 

 figs. 5—8. 



1843. Sphderodorum flavum, CErsted. Annul. Dan. Consp., p. 43, f. 7, 92, 101. 



1844. „ „ idem. Arch. f. Naturges., Bd. x, p. 108. 



1 Rathke named the form after Diana of Ephesus. 



2 < Arch. f. Naturges./ Bd. x, p. 108, 1844. 



3 The coloured figure was taken from a specimen in which post-mortem changes had occurred. 



