SPIOPHANES BOMBYX. 183 



1898. Spiophanes bombyx, De St. Joseph. Ann. Sc. nat., 8 e ser., t. v, p. 352, pi. xx, fig. 165. 



1909 - „ » Mcintosh. Ann. Nat. Hist., ser. 8, vol. hi, p. 167. 



19i0 - ,, „ Elwes. Journ. M. B. A., vol. ix, p. 62. 



1914 - » » Southern, Proc. Roy. Irish Acad., vol xxxi, no. 47, p. 102. 



Habitat. — Not uncommon in sand near low-water mark at the Bast Sands, and near 

 the East Bocks, St. Andrews. Generally encased in a tube of sand. Torquay (Elwes) ; 

 Blacksod Bay (Southern). 



Elsewhere it has been procured in the Mediterranean (Claparede, Panceri) ; Shores 

 of France (Giard, De St. Joseph, and Mesnil). Mesnil found his examples in rigid 

 tubes of sand near low-water mark, in company with Echinocardiuin cordatmn at 

 Wimereux ; and Elwes mentions the same at Torquay. 



Head (Plate XCVIII, fig. 10) comparatively pale, with two short tapering frontal 

 tentacles, from which a median elevation passes backward to end in a small conical peak 

 or eminence. The two palpi are of moderate size, very frequently coiled, and contain 

 blood-vessels. A small eye-speck occurs on each side of the median ridge posteriorly 

 near the peak, and in the preparations the eyes are raised (with the ridge) above the 

 general level. They are nearer each other than the anterior pair — a little in front. 



The body is about three inches in length, very little tapered anteriorly, and much 

 more posteriorly, where it ends in a wide vent with crenate lips, two dorsal and two 

 ventral processes being present, the cirri springing from the ventral pair. Many examples 

 show reproduced tails, for the species is remarkable for its fragility, as Mesnil likewise found. 

 The dorsum is somewhat flattened anteriorly, rounded throughout the rest of its extent, 

 and marked ventrally by a median band, which, when it comes to the vent, splits, a limb 

 curving upward on each side and joining the dorsal band, and probably indicating the 

 junction of the ventral with the dorsal vascular trunk. A median and two lateral brownish 

 lines occur on the dorsum behind the head, but they pass only a short distance back- 

 ward. The sides are vascular anteriorly, then of a pale brownish hue, thereafter orange 

 from the colour of the gut. The vascularity is considerable. The ventral surface is pale, 

 though the gut is seen through the wall. The proboscis forms a short cylinder in pro- 

 trusion with a slight rim toward the tip, and is apparently smooth. 



The oesophagus is dilated behind the head, and has granular glands of a brownish 

 colour. It is contracted between the fifth and sixth bristle-bundles, and proceeds for some 

 distance straight backward. At the fourteenth foot it again dilates a little, and con- 

 tinues to the eighteenth foot, opposite which is a distinct enlargement and a coating of 

 dark green glands. At the termination of the oesophageal region was a blackish mass 

 (of food?), and this may have caused the dilatation. Under compression the canal has a 

 tesellated aspect, the cells having fatty granules surrounding a central nucleus. Lively 

 movements occur in the canal at the vent, the region being richly ciliated. As in the 

 Oligochaets this region probably aids in respiration. 



In the anterior region the dorsal blood-vessel pulsates quietly, driving the blood 

 forward to the transverse vessel behind the eyes, a branch from which enters the tentacle. 

 A conspicuous lateral intestinal vessel extends from the caudal region to the front. 



The first foot has clorsally a subulate or narrow lanceolate lamella (cirrus) which has 

 been shifted inward on the dorsum, so that it resembles a branchia. The curved dorsal 



