202 MECKELIA ASULCATA. 



The layer of longitudinal fibres underneath the latter is powerful. The proboscis is white, and 

 furnished with small glands, somewhat like those in L. gesserensis. 



Several specimens were brought alive to Scotland, but from their fragility they were in an 

 imperfect state. After surviving a fortnight they deposited eggs, and died about the middle 

 of September. It was interesting to observe the change of colour which ensued in certain 

 fragments after rupture 5 inferiorly they were dull brownish-red, with the pinkish-brown ova 

 projecting in masses, but by-and-by the latter were extruded, and the ruptured ends and the 

 inferior surface resumed the usual whitish hue of the walls of the digestive chamber. On the 

 whole they were inert animals, generally fashioning tubes on the side of the vessel and remaining 

 therein. 



I have incorporated the British form with Prof. Grube's species from Villafranca. His 

 description is as follows: — " Body rounded, not changeable, 1—1-5 inch long, contracting into 

 7*5 lines long, and then ringed and wrinkled, 0*5 of a line broad. Orange-red, or sometimes 

 brick-red, sides and under surface white ; head white, only at the tip of the snout there is a violet 

 spot, and then a broad white belt. The body tapers towards the posterior end, and terminates in 

 a much thinner process, probably a short reproduced tail. The head is not pointed: lateral 

 fissures and eyes not noticed." He had overlooked the lateral fissures, which are shallow. The 

 description of the " growing tail" quite corroborates the correctness of my sister's drawing, for 

 the styles had fallen off when I examined the specimens. Grube's figure shows a broader 

 white belt anteriorly than I observed in the British forms, but such may have been due either to 

 variation or want of scientific accuracy in his artist. 



Genus IX. — Meckelia, 1 Leuckart, 1827. (Char, emend.) 



For the curious form described in the following paragraphs I have thought it better to 

 appropriate the title of a genus established in 1827 by Leuckart in his 'Breves Animalium,' 

 and set at liberty by the undisputed claim of priority. The name, it is true, was given to a form 

 differing in some respects from the following ; but the literature of the subject is already so 

 burdened with generic names which have been fashioned on insufficient and unreliable data, that 

 it is almost a duty to resent any addition thereto if it can be avoided. Priority, also, gives the 

 present title a certain claim on our consideration. 



Generic character. — Structure of the rounded body-wall as in Linens. Cephalic 

 fissures absent. Proboscis furnished with only three coats, external spiral, longitudinal, and 

 glandular. 



Meckelia asulcata, n. s. 



Specific character. — Eyeless. Body thick and round. Of a uniform pinkish hue. 

 Habitat. — St. Magnus Bay and adjoining seas, Shetland ; and between tide-marks, 

 Herm. 



1 Named in honour of Prof. Meckel. The same name was in 1830 given by Robineau-Desvoidy 

 ( f Essai sur les Myodaires') to a genus of Diptera. 



