LUMBPICONEREIS ACUTIFPONS. 389 



This form, dredged in the 'Porcupine' Expedition of 1870, may be briefly 

 alluded to here, for, in the absence of a note of its locality, it may yet be procured in 

 the neighbouring waters. 



The single example is small and imperfect, but is distinguished by the attenuated 

 conical snout (Plate LXXXVII, fig. 7), which from a base of the normal breadth tapers 

 to a delicate extremity. In lateral view it is even thicker at the tip than when seen from 

 above, for the dorso-ventral flattening is less marked than in ordinary types. 



The body is very little diminished anteriorly, and remains of the same diameter as 

 far as it goes, the total length of the fragment being f in. The dental apparatus is trans- 

 lucent madder-brown by transmitted light. The maxillae are somewhat broad posteriorly, 

 with a concave border, but taper in front to strongly curved and sharp points. Their 

 posterior appendages are constricted after the articulation, then expand into somewhat 

 long processes, with a straight inner and a convex outer edge, the whole appendage being 

 thus unusually long. The great dental plates appear to have six strong, recurved teeth, 

 each of which is connected by a canal with a brown band externally. These correspond 

 respectively with the central canal of the tooth and the layer of odontoblasts of the dental 

 matrix of Pruvot and Racovitza, 1 as shown in their account of Lumbriconereis coccinea. 

 In front the preparation presented only a single plate with a tooth. The translucent 

 mandibles are anchylosed in front, then split into the oblique cutting edge which is capped 

 externally with brown. Nearly parallel lines pass from these blades into the shafts, where 

 they converge. The apparatus, however, had been injured. 



In glancing along the lateral region of the body the feet are seen to project evenly, for 

 the basal part forms, when observed from the dorsum, a cylindrical process, the setigerous 

 lobe constituting the anterior or median region of the tip, whilst posteriorly is a short 

 subulate papilla or lobe, sometimes probe-pointed, and which is largest in the anterior feet. 

 The bristles are translucent and brittle, so that comparatively few remain on the specimen. 

 The spines, of which four or more occur in the anterior feet, are also pale and translucent, 

 the tips only being russet-brown. The dorsal bristles (Plate LXXXVI, fig. 7) are slightly 

 curved at the end of the shaft, the winged tip dilating in the usual manner and then 

 tapering distally to a fine point, which in some is considerably prolonged. A few bristles, 

 again, are of a more slender structure, dilating little at the end of the shaft, and termi- 

 nating in a very attenuate hair-like tip (Plate LXXXVI, fig. 7 a). The hooks likewise are 

 translucent, and appear to be absent from the anterior feet, though, as mentioned, they 

 might have been removed. The shaft is curved backward toward the tip, and gradually 

 dilates to the commencement of the short neck of the hook (Plate LXXXVI, fig. 7 b). 

 The main fang in this region of the body is small, and the crown above it has several small 

 teeth. 



The species is peculiar, and probably came from a considerable depth. 



Delle Chiaje 2 gives figures of the dorsal and the ventral surface of a form with 

 a similar sharp snout, but neither description nor name has been found, and the arrange- 

 ment of the segments appears to differ. It is, at any rate, a near approach to the foregoing 

 species from the ' Porcupine.' 



1 ' Arch. Zool. exper./ 3 e ser., t. hi, p. 380, text-fig. 3. 

 3 'Descriz. Anim. Invert./ Tav. 178, figs. 4 and 5. 



