300 NEEEIS- (PERINEREIS) MARIONII. 



Joseph procured his specimens at Guethary and St. Jean-de-Luz under stones, and at St. 

 Anne near d'Hendaye in Mdobesia agariciformis. 



The original description with its excellent figures by Audouin and Edwards, 1 drawn 

 up from a specimen from La Vendee, sent by Dr. Marion de Proce, a physician and 

 naturalist of Nantes, places the identification of this species beyond doubt, though the 

 paragnathi are not alluded to. That so competent a successor, therefore, should have 

 been unable to satisfy himself of the relationship is not easily explained, even though the 

 absence of the original example should have made some obscurity. The description 

 De St. Joseph gives of the body, the head, and its organs, the changes in the structure of 

 the feet — especially the remarkable increase of the dorsal process with the cirrus at the 

 tip (which Audouin and Edwards regarded as branchial in function), as well as 

 the structure of the bristles— all apply to Nereis Marionii The great variability in the 

 details of the paragnathi of N. Marionii probably has given rise to ambiguity in the 

 absence of a description or reference to the original specimen. Moreover, the changes 

 after long preservation are considerable. In every British example Group VI is repre- 

 sented by a prominent conical tooth, or by a transverse bar, akin to that indicated as 

 typical of Perinereis longipes by De St. Joseph. This, from its somewhat conical outline, 

 is prominent during the partial protrusion of the proboscis, as it is elevated on a papilla. 

 In the centre between there is (V) a single conical tooth, with a somewhat irregular series of 

 smaller points " dusted " between the larger pair (VI). The large number of very minute 

 specks shown in De St. Joseph's figure (Plate XVII, fig. 110) is apparently a variation. 

 In some of the British forms Group V consists of a central in front and two or three 

 similar ones behind, with a few smaller dotted around. Groups I and II on this aspect, 

 viz., those near the base of the maxillae in extrusion, are after the plan shown by De St. 

 Joseph. From the outer border of each of the larger posterior paragnathi (VI) a dotted 

 series runs to the ventral surface, and occasionally a line of paragnathi leaves Group V on 

 each side in the same direction. These lead to the basal ventral series VII and VIII, 

 arranged in lozenges after the manner shown by De St. Joseph (fig. 112), though in the 

 British specimens the minute points are less numerous. The teeth in the maxillary 

 (distal) region, near the base of the maxillse on the ventral surface (Groups III and IV), 

 are fewer in number, but have a similar arrangement to that figured by De St. Joseph. 

 The author, indeed, observes that the proboscis approaches that of Perinereis Marionii, but 

 that species has three dorsal lobes to the foot (as figured by Audouin and Edwards?). 

 So far as the British examples go, however, the structure does not differ from that given 

 by De St. Joseph, and it may be that Grube was right in considering Nereis crassipes, 

 De Quatrefages, as the young of N. Marionii, which, according to his descriptions, seems 

 altogether to have eluded the careful search of the French shores by De St. Joseph. 

 Periuereis longipes, De St. Joseph, therefore, as well as Nereis Perrieri, is regarded as a 

 synonym of Nereis Marionii, And. & Edw. 



The Nereis Ockenii 2 (the N. oltoana of the ' Descrizione' 3 ) of Delle Chiaji may have 

 some connection with this species, if it is not identical. His artist may have made 



1 c Annelides/ p. 185, pi. iv a, figs. 1—6, 1834. 



2 'Memorie/ hi, pp. 166 and 175, Tav. xlii, figs. 2, 12, and 20, 1828. 



3 Tomo iii, pp. 96 and 103, v, p. 102, Tav. 96, figs. 7, 12, 17, 20, 21. 



