244 APHRODITA. 



and a facial tubercle between the palpi and the front of the mouth. Tentacle extending 

 from the middle of the cephalic lobe. KTo antennas. The sessile or subpedunculated 

 eyes are situated in front of the middle of the cephalic lobe. The palpi are long, thick, 

 tapering, and ciliated ; and two tentacular cirri are on each side of the first pair of feet.. 

 The buccal cirri (ventral pair of the second feet) are longer than the succeeding. The 

 exsertile pharynx has ridge-like transverse processes — ^a^'-cartilaginous, and resembling 

 jaws. The branchias are in the form of low papillas, situated above and internal to the 

 bases of the dorsal cirri, and covered by the elytra. They are not always obvious. The 

 elytra occur on segments 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, &c. The other families were Iphionea, Polynoina, 

 Acoetea, Sigalionina, Pholoidea, and Palmyracea. 



The genus Aphrodita he distinguished as follows : — Eyes sessile (pigment-spots in 

 pairs). First pair of feet furnished with numerous bristles, and with tentacular cirri. 

 Dorsal division of the foot distinct from the ventral, low (small) and broad, with strong 

 sharp spines and capillary bristles, forming a kind of felt on the dorsum ; ventral division 

 carried outwards, blunt, with numerous bristles, smooth, acute, but neither glochidiate 

 nor bidentate. 



Chenu l (1859) chiefly followed Milne Edwards in placing the Aphroditiens as the 

 first family of his Annelides Errantes, the Amphinomiens and Euniciens forming the 

 second and third families. 



In the posthumous c British Annelids ' of Dr. G. Johnston, published by the British 

 Museum in 1865, the first family, Aphroditaceas, included not only the genera pertaining 

 to the Aphroditidas, but the Polynoidas and Sigalionidas. The author followed in his 

 description Audouin and Milne Edwards. He gives three species of Aphrodita, viz. the 

 common form, A. borealis (which is the young of the former) and A. hystrix (Hermione 

 hystrix). Like Grube, he classified the Annelids under the Eapacia and Limivora. 



De Quatrefages 2 included the whole of the group forming the subject of this fasciculus 

 — with the exception of the Amphinomidas and Euphrosynidas — under the family Aphro- 

 ditidas, in which the regions of the body are similar while the segments are dissimilar. 

 They fall under his first order Errantes. The author criticised the classification of 

 Kinberg, and held that only two families existed in the sub-order, viz. the Aphroditidas 

 and the Palmyridas, the one characterised by the presence and the other by the absence 

 of scales. The Aphroditidas form a very natural family of the Errant Annelids. The 

 head bears two to three antennas and two to four eyes ; w T hile the buccal segment is often 

 indistinct, and with or without tentacles. The body is more or less covered by the 

 elytra, and the segments present differences which are repeated with regularity. The 

 antennas (tentacles) receive their nerves directly from the brain, and their number is at 

 most three. The external antennas (palpi) are really the tentacles of the buccal ring, and 

 receive their nerves from a special ganglion. The nerves of the tentacular cirri, again, 

 come from the first ganglion of the ventral chain, being modified processes of the first 

 pair of feet. The head bears a kind of caruncle (facial tubercle ?) in front. The eyes in 

 general are small, resting on the brain, though in some they are pedunculated and sus- 

 ceptible of movement. The mouth has thick lips. 



1 < Encyclop. d'Hist. Nat./ 1859. 



2 f Anneles Marins, &c./ 1865. 



