246 APHBODITA. 



In his summary of the Aphroditacea l (1868) Dr. Baird showed that while Audouin 

 and Milne Edwards included six and Grube seven species, later authors had so increased 

 the number that Kinberg found it convenient to form most of the older genera into 

 distinct families. He gives a description of the family Aphroditidas after Kinberg, with 

 four genera, viz. Aphrodita, Hermione, Aphrogenia, and Lxtmonice. A succinct account of 

 the species follows under each genus, and he seems to have acquiesced in Dr. Johnston's 

 view that Aphrodita borealis was a distinct species — a position he subsequently vacated, 

 this being only the young of A. aculeata. He added one or two new species to the list. 

 His Lastmonice Kinbergi, however, as he afterwards admitted, is identical with L.filicornis, 

 Kinberg, a species widely distributed in Northern waters. 



Ray Lankester 2 found hemoglobin in the nerve-cords of A. aculeata. 



Grube next gave a survey of the family Aphroditidse (which included the whole 

 series here considered). 3 He divided the group into sub-sections thus : — a. The one 

 segment with elytra, the other with cirri ; no jointed bristles. These he subdivided as 

 follows : — a. Between the elytra-bearing segments of the body one segment carrying a 

 dorsal cirrus ; in the posterior part of the body mostly two bearing cirri, or the elytra 

 absent. 1. Hermionea (Aphroditacea, Kinberg). 2. Polynoina. The first group, the 

 Hermionea, which alone concerns us at present, he classified according to the condition 

 of the ventral bristles and the state of the eyes, (a) All the ventral bristles have simple 

 tips. In Aphrodita he gives as characters the following: — The ventral bristles in three 

 rows, short, thick; the dorsal bundle of all the segments bearing the elytra furnished 

 with longer and stronger bristles and two bundles of fine hair-like bristles, the alternate 

 segments also with another felted series, under which the elytra lie; two eyes. 



Schmarda 4 included the Aphroditidse and Amphinomidse under his Notobranchiate 

 Chastopods. 



In his treatise on the Annelids collected by Semper in the Philippines (1878) Grube 

 terms the family Aphroditea. Besides the characters previously stated, he mentions 

 that all the segments bear ventral cirri and two fascicles of bristles, and that the fourth 

 and fifth segments always carry elytra. The stomach is subcartilaginous, and the 

 intestine has pinnate ca3ca. 



Claus 5 (1880) grouped under the family Aphroditidaa the sub-families Herminioninse, 

 Polynoinaa, Acoetinaa, Sigalioninao, and Polylepinaa ; while his second family was the 

 PalmyridaB. Under the Sigalioninas he embraced Psammohjce and Pholoe. 



Levinsen 6 (1883) follows Malmgren's classification of the Aphroditida3 in his paper 

 on the Northern Annelids. 



Cams 7 (1884) describes the genus Aphrodita as having fifteen pairs of elytra on 

 alternate feet, which are destitute of cirri ; the intermediate bearing a cirrus and branchia ; 



1 c Journ. Linn. Soc./ vol. viii, 1865. 



2 f Ann. Nat. Hist./ 4th series, vol. xi, p. 97, 1873. 



3 ' Sitzrmg. d. Schlesischen Gesell./ 1874. 



4 'Zoologie/ 2nd edit., 1877, Wien. 



5 ' Grundzuge d. Zoolog./ 1880, pp. 490-98. 



6 Aftryk, af. ' Yidensk. Meddel. f. d. Nat. Foren. i. Kjobenhavn/ 1882-3. 



7 ' Fauna Mediterr./ 1884. 



