LEPIDONOTUS SQUAMATUS. 275 



1883. Lepidonotus squamatus, Levinsen. Nord. Annulat., p. 194. 



1884. » „ Webster & Benedict. Ann. Mass., p. 699. 



„ Polynoe squamata, A. G. Bourne. Trans. Linn. Soc, Zool., ii, p. 349, &c. 



1886. Lepidonotus squamatus, Harvey-Gribson. Yerm. Liverp., p. 150. 



1888. Polynoe squamata, De Saint-Joseph. Ann. d. Sc. Nat. (7), v, p. 151. 



1890. Lepidonotus squamatus, Malaquin. Ann. Boulon., p. 15. 



1896. Polynoe squamata, H. F. Johnson. Pacific Annel., p. 166. 



Habitat. — Everywhere round British shores, from Shetland to the Channel Islands, 

 under stones between tide-marks, and stretching to the laminarian and coralline regions 

 beyond, as well as to comparatively deep water (fifty fathoms), where it is partial to 

 crevices in old shells, especially univalves covered with coils of Sepulge, and the bottoms 

 of stones. It is common in the stomachs of the cod and other fishes, and is frequently 

 tossed on shore after storms along the east coast, as at St. Andrews. It extends across 

 the Atlantic to the Canadian and American waters — from the St. Lawrence to Cape 

 Cod, and passes as far south as the Azores, off which (Fayal) it was dredged at a depth 

 of 450 fathoms in the ' Challenger.' In the north it ranges from Greenland to the 

 .Norwegian and Western European coasts, and Gould includes it in his list from the 

 shores of Massachusetts. 



Length about 25 mm. ; more rarely 50 mm. 



Head (Plate XXV, fig. 2) broadly ovate or rounded, bounded posteriorly by the fold 

 of the nuchal plate, and anteriorly running into the bases of the median and lateral 

 tentacles. It is smooth, iridescent, purplish pink, has a longitudinal median furrow, 

 and bears on its dorso-lateral margins the four black eyes, the first and slightly larger 

 pair of which are rather in front of the middle line, and the second towards the posterior 

 border. Anteriorly the base of the median tentacle occupies the centre, and is distin- 

 guished from the smaller bases of the lateral tentacles, conjoined with it, by the 

 arrangement of the dark pigment which forms a V with the point posteriorly. The 

 median tentacle is considerably longer than the lateral, all having the bulbous and more 

 deeply pigmented region below the pale filiform tip. Beyond the ceratophore the 

 column is opaque, whitish, toned off gradually to the dark ring at the enlargement. The 

 tentacular cirri are similar in structure but more slender. All these organs and the 

 palpi are smooth. In life the latter (palpi) are longer than the median tentacle. 

 Moreover, the first foot (basal process of the tentacular cirri) bears on its inner edge 

 towards the front a tuft of six or seven slightly curved and tapered spinous bristles. 

 These are shorter and thicker than the ordinary dorsal bristles. They are thus 

 apparently more numerous than in L. claim. The small size of all the appendages of the 

 head is a distinctive character when contrasted with the latter species. 



Body of about twenty-six bristled segments. Dorsum smoothly rounded, with 

 three or four bars in each segment, at the sides of which are soft elevations upon which 

 the scales are placed, or which bear cirri at their external borders, the former being more 

 prominent than the latter. The dorsum is pale, but between the elevations for the last 

 pair of scales posteriorly a brown central patch occurs, while the segment behind 

 presents a median, blunt, spear-head of brown, and a lateral ocellate arrangement, the 

 whole being symmetrical. In the preparations the rigid contraction of the longitudinal 



