LEPIDONOTTTS SQUAMATUS. 279 



The large deep-water forms (forty fathoms off St. Abb's Head) seem to be softer 

 than those between tide-marks, and have the scales more or less abraded. 



Reproduction. — Large examples from the neighbourhood of St. Abb's Head were 

 loaded with ova and ripe sperms on August 1st, 1884, and the Irish examples were so in 

 July. At St. Andrews nearly ripe as well as ripe males and nearly ripe females occur from 

 the beginning of May to the end of June, and it is probable that the spawning period 

 is in June and July. The males are distinguished by their pale hue, whereas the ripe 

 females are of a slate-grey. The spermatozoa have a globular or slightly ovoid head and 

 a long tail, as in Nereis. No ova could be pressed out of the long segmental (nephridial) 

 processes with their dilated and truncated ends, but they readily issued from ruptures of 

 the parietes of the body. The segmental papilla are alike in both sexes, of moderate 

 length, and with a little dark pigment at the trumpet-like ends. 



Young examples of about 3 mm. in length occur in July (' Irish Exped.,' 1886, to 

 G-weedore). These show proportionally larger cilia, larger and fewer bosses on the scales, 

 and the cirri have more elongate tips, with scarcely a trace of the enlargement below. 

 The ventral bristles have proportionally longer tips. 



When disturbed in their native haunts, their motions are comparatively slow and 

 cautious, so different from the restless activity of Harmothoe imbricata or Evarne. They 

 cling tenaciously, partly by aid of their bristles, to rough surfaces, so that, for instance, 

 the tubes of Filigrana give way in extracting them, and it is difficult to pull them from 

 grooves in shells and similar hollows. Fine examples are procured in rock-pools under 

 large stones that have been little disturbed for many years, where, for instance, Mgirus 

 jpunctiluceus and patches of Alcyonium occur. They are partial to hollows and crevices ; 

 thus one thrust itself into the tube of Protula, and being preserved therein has retained 

 the cylindrical shape. Hitherto, however, they have not been found commensalistic in 

 the tubes of other annelids, but occupy their sites independently under stones in rivulets 

 and rock-pools near low-water mark, and for some distance landwards. In confinement, 

 specimens of Evarne and Harmothoe will occasionally cling to the dorsum, and small 

 examples may even insinuate themselves along the dorsum under the scales. 



The crustacean parasite, Sellius bilobus, Kroyer, 1 is found on this species in northern 

 waters, while Perigonymus repens* occurred in great beauty on the anterior scales of fine 

 specimens trawled in thirty-five to forty fathoms off St. Abb's Head. 



While they are not infrequently found in the stomach of the cod and other fishes, it 

 is curious that young green cod in the tanks refused them and other Polynoidse, such as 

 Harmothoe and Lagisca, while they readily devoured Nereis, Trophonia, and Girratulus ; 

 the mode in which the Polynoidse curved themselves and kept the bristles prominent, 

 showed that they were aware of the value of such protective organs. Taken into the 

 mouth of the green cod they were at once rejected, and fell to the bottom of the tank, 

 where they were engulfed by Cottus, but with a similar result, viz. immediate rejection. 



0. F. Miiller, in his « Wurm-Arten,' calls this species " die gediipfelte Aphrodite 

 mit rauhen einfarbigen Schuppen." 



1 'Naturhist. Tidskrift./ lste E., i, 1837. 



2 This zoophyte recalls the loss lately sustained by science in the death of the Rev. Dr. T. Hincks, 

 whose patient and accurate work amongst the Hydroids and Polyzoa will long he remembered. 



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