158 SCOLECOLBPIS VULGARIS. 



1888. Scolecolepis vulgaris, Cunningham and Earnage. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb., vol. xxxiii, p. 640. 

 „ „ „ Cunningham. Quart. Journ. Micr. Sc., vol. xxviii, N.S., p. 273. 



1890. „ „ Malaquin. Annel. Boulonn, p. 47. 



1891. Nerine [Scolecolepis) vulgaris, Hornell. Trans. Biol. Soc. Liverp., vol. v, p. 255. 



1892. Scolecolepis vulgaris, Marenzeller. Zool. Jahrb., Abth. f. Syst., Bd. vi, p. 429. 



1894. Spio vulgaris, Bidenkap. Christ. Vid.-Selsk. Forhandl., p. 94. 



„ Nerine jlorseensis, De St. Joseph. Ann. Sc. nat., 7 e ser., t. xvii, p. 77, pi. iv, figs. 91 — 100. 



1895. „ Girardi, idem. Ibid., 7 e ser., t. xx 3 p. 229. 



1896. „ vulgaris, Benham. Camb. Nat. Hist., vol. ii, p. 322. 



„ Scolecolepis Girardi, Mesnil. Bull. Sc. Nord et Belg. ; t. xxix, p. 140, pi. viii, fig. 15 — 28. 



1897. „ vulgaris, Ehlers. Hamb. Magell., Samm., p. 86. 

 1901. „ „ idem. Polych. Magell. Chil., p. 165. 

 1904. „ „ . Journ. M. B. A., vol. vii, p. 227. 



1909. „ „ Mcintosh. Ann. Nat. Hist., ser. 8, vol. iii, p. 159. 

 „ „ Giardi, idem. Ibid. 



1910. „ vidgaris, Southern. Proc. E. Irish Acad., vol. xxviii, p. 235. 

 » „ „ Elwes. Journ. M. B. A., vol. ix, p. 62. 



1913. „ „ Giard. (Euvr. Divers, p. 56. 



Habitat. — Not uncommon in sand between tide-marks around the shores of Britain. 

 It is less common than Nerine folios a at Lochmaddy. It occasionally frequents cracks in 

 sandstone (R. Mcintosh). The largest examples are from Lochmaddy and St. Andrews. 

 Those from Guernsey and Herm are considerably smaller. Howth Head, Dublin 

 (Southern). Torquay (Elwes). 



Elsewhere it is met with in Norway (Sars) ; Sweden (Loven, Goes, and Malmgren) ; 

 shores of the North Sea; Prance (De Quatrefages, Keferstein, Tauber, Giard, De St. 

 Joseph, Mesnil); Mediterranean (Grube) ; Siberian coast and Behring Sea (Wiren) ; 

 Magellan (Ehlers). 



Head (Plate XC, fig. 4) truncate with a short tentacle at each side, the anterior edge 

 between them being slightly crenate and pale. Viewed from the dorsum it forms a 

 triangle, to the apex of which is posteriorly attached what appears to be a homologue of 

 the occipital tentacle in Nerine, but it is fixed. It is slightly dilated at its commence- 

 ment, and then tapers to a point behind. Eyes generally absent. From the sides of the 

 snout pass the two large and long tentacles which are pale, marked externally by whitish 

 bars, and enlivened by a zig-zag blood-vessel in the centre. They are active, muscular 

 organs, coiling and twisting in various ways. 



Body (Plate XC, fig. 3) 3^ to 4 inches long, slightly narrowed in front and gradually 

 tapering posteriorly to the tail, which is terminated by the vent with eight cirri 

 around it 1 . The body is somewhat rounded in front, though the ventral surface is 

 in contraction more convex than the dorsal. Posteriorly there is a tendency to flattening 

 in contraction, but toward the tail it is again somewhat rounded. These features 

 are less conspicuous in a living and healthy example, as indicated in the coloured 

 drawing. The dorsum is marked by transverse lines, and on the ventral surface each 



1 Mesnil says the filiform anal cirri resemble the terminal lamella) of the body at the tail. 

 De St. Joseph gives 20-30, Mesnil 16 filiform anal cirri. 



