CELETOPTERUS VARIOPEDATUS. 123 



Panceri, etc.). Red Sea, etc. (Gravier and Crossland) ; 9 miles off Cape de Gatte, 81 

 fathoms, ' Porcupine,' 1870 ; 300 fathoms off Norway (Sars). Strait of Magellan (Grube 

 and Ehlers). Chili (Ehlers). Mediterranean— Naples (Lo Bianco). Three hundred 

 fathoms off Norway (M. Sars). Spitzbergen (Fauvel). Almost cosmopolitan. 



The anterior region in the northern specimens usually consists of the " head " and 

 nine bristled segments. The so-called "head" forms a broad frill or collar, the great 

 dorsal flaps of which cease at the base of the tentacles, a less conspicuous rim passing 

 on each side to the middle line of the dorsum where fusion occurs. In the preparations 

 of the northern forms, as in life, no forward frill is present in the mid-dorsal line, as in 

 the Neapolitan examples, the dorsal band forming an enlargement and ending bluntly 

 behind the oral rim (funnel). In the Neapolitan form the dorsal median line has a 

 tendency to differentiation in the shape of a fold or a thickening of the rim, and the 

 termination of the mid-dorsal longitudinal band is less expanded. The cavity of the 

 collar, which, by the approximation of the dorsal flaps, assumes the shape of a funnel, 

 leads to the mouth and is tinted brown, with a tendency to madder-brown near the 

 mouth. It doubtless subserves important functions in alimentation. At its outer edge 

 dorsally and close to the first foot on each side springs the large subulate tentacle 

 (peristomial cirrus) which in the preparations is grooved and crenated on its inner surface. 

 Thus the organ resembles a palp, though apparently occupying a different position. In 

 life it is capable of considerable elongation and occasionally presents a coil or two toward 

 the tip. At its base externally and anteriorly is a transversely elongated black or dark 

 brown pigment-speck — the eye. In the preparations it occupies a pit at the base of the 

 collar and between it and the origin of the tentacle. In some the black pigment-specks 

 are separately arranged in a transverse row. The space between the tentacles has by 

 some authors been considered to represent the prostomium. 



Closely following the buccal segment are the feet and other parts of the first or 

 anterior region of the body (to which also the buccal segment belongs). In almost all 

 the northern examples, and these range from Shetland to the Channel Islands, the number 

 of bristled segments is nine. In two examples of G. variojpedatus from Naples, one had 

 ten on both sides, and the other ten on the right and eleven on the left side. Considerable 

 variability, however, is known to exist in the common species, which may have only eight 

 bristled segments in this region, as Claparede found in certain Neapolitan examples. The 

 feet are uniramous with the exception of the ninth, and to some extent increase in length from 

 before backward. Each is a sickle-shaped process directed outward and upward nearly 

 at right angles to the body and carrying a long row of bristles on its convex or ventral 

 edge, whilst at the base dorsally is an elevation like a bulla from the third foot backward. 

 It thus differs from the condition in the examples from Naples, where the glistening dorsal 

 coat forms a concave fillet at the base of each foot, and there is no bulla, the latter being 

 visible even in small specimens of the northern form. Yet on pressing the broad dorsal 

 layer in the Neapolitan examples a bleb is caused on the thin covering of the foot just 

 beyond it, so that a different mode of preparation might cause resemblances. This region 

 in the large examples forms a mass which in the spirit-preparations is nearly quadrangular 

 and of almost cartilaginous hardness. The feet vary to some extent from the first to the 

 ninth, though retaining the general plan. The eighth is perhaps the longest, whilst the 



