282 LEPIDOXOTUS CLAVA. 



of elongated papillae, which are conical and taper to a point. They are best developed to- 

 wards the tip of the organ. Prof. Bourne describes each as furnished with a sensory hair. 



Body. — The dorsum is marked in the median line by broad interrupted patches of 

 blackish-brown pigment, three or four of the most prominent anterior touches having a 

 pale area in the centre. These touches extend outward to the feet posteriorly ; more- 

 over, dorsally the bases of the feet have black pigment, which becomes strongly 

 pronounced after the anterior third, the effect of the mottling of the feet and body 

 posteriorly being somewhat like that on tortoise-shell. 



The ventral surface has a similar arrangement of areas to that in L. squamatus, only 

 the lateral are marked off from the bases of the feet posteriorly by a slightly elevated and 

 pigmented border, which terminates at the bases of the caudal styles, and is connected 

 with touches which extend a short way forward in the median line. 



Posteriorly the body terminates in a grooved pedicle for the large symmetrical 

 caudal styles, all these parts being better marked than in L. squamatus. The anus is 

 situated dorsally at the base of the pedicle, to which it sends a ridge-like process. 



The bristled segments are twenty-six. 



Proboscis and Digestive System. — De Saint- Joseph found sixteen papillse along the 

 margin of the proboscis, but there are eighteen, as in L. squamatus, in all the examples 

 examined. They are speckled with black pigment. In transverse section the organ is 

 typical. 



Only two cylindrical and rather massive cseca pass forwards into the peripharyngeal 

 space, and their extremities appear to be devoid of any distinct differentiation. The 

 stomachal region of the gut anteriorly is remarkably muscular, the fibres at the front end 

 forming a row of separate dull orange lobes which clasp the proboscis, and which resemble 

 a series of glands. Their tissue, however, is wholly muscular, the powerful fibres forming 

 loops in the rounded lobes, which are sometimes made by rupture of the fibres from 

 the proboscis. 



Colour. — The dorsum is of a dull brownish hue speckled with white, and with dark 

 touches on the scales. The under surface is pale, with some dark touches at the mouth 

 and the sides of the tail. The segmental papilla has a dark column and a whitish tip in 

 the posterior half of the body. At the reproductive season the males are pale under 

 the scales, the females dark grey. 



Scales. — The scales (Plate XXXII, fig. 2) of this species are more or less circular 

 throughout, and do not quite cover the dorsum, or, as Marenzeller says, leave bare 

 rhomboidal spaces. Some are firmly fixed, others easily separate from the pedicle as in 

 L. squamatus. They are more flexible than in that species, and, with the exception of the 

 first four pairs, show only minute tubercles. The first, second, and third have numerous 

 small tubercles or blunt dumb-bell shaped papillas, distributed generally over the surface, 

 while the fourth has a smaller number, less distinctly raised above the surface. The 

 edge of the scale throughout is smooth. They are fixed by the umbilicus, which is 

 nearer the outer than the inner margin, this area being generally marked dorsally by a 

 white patch bordered with black pigment. The scales give the dorsum generally a 

 leaden hue, or in some a dusky brown, speckled with white. Besides the white patch, 

 which posteriorly is sometimes reniform, at the umbilicus the scales are mottled with a 



