1897.] Entomology. 819 
Having been shown these phenomena both in living and in preserved 
echinoderm eggs I was able to find them again in the common Annelid, 
Serpula ;—though as yet by no means as clearly and extensively as in 
the more thoroughly studied and favorable star-fish material. 
The egg of Serpula is much less favorable than that of the star- 
fish, as far as the seeing of spinning phenomena is concerned, since it 
has a thick, very highly refracting membrane that makes it difficult to 
see fine structures within it, and since also the cells are so closely 
crowded together and against the membrane (which remains as the 
larval cuticle) that there are few free spaces which could be traversed 
by spin threads. Ha. 
Yet some filaments can be seen passing out from the egg, or cells, to 
the membrane. As yet I have not seen spinning filaments connect one 
cell with another though there was evidence that such probably exist 
and are to be seen with good light and favorable point of view. 
When the polar bodies have been formed, the membrane is raised up 
from the egg sufficiently to leave a space all about the polar bodies. 
Though at first no processes are seen, they gradually form and extend 
out from the egg till they cross the space and become attached to the 
membrane. These processes are unmistakably the same as the spin- 
nings of the star-fish egg. They are of different lengths and thicknesses 
and arise from the surface of the egg all around the polar bodies. 
The polar bodies were not seen to spin. 
_ In eases where the egg-membrane is raised up locally at the end 
Opposite to the polar bodies, spin-threads were also seen passing from 
this side of the egg to the raised membrane. 
In abnormal individuals where the membrane is widely separated 
from the egg, long and very numerous and distinct threads were seen 
radiating out from the entire surface of the egg to the membrane. As 
in the star-fish there is a marked difference between the spinning of 
normal and abnormal eggs. 
When the egg has divided into two cells and these are rounding off 
at the edges preparatory to the next division, spin processes are seen 
passing off from each cell to the membrane, both at the polar body 
pole and at the opposite end. 
Here I first observed the branching of filaments, so characteristic in 
the star-fish. One common trunk arising from a cell presents a num- 
ber of long branches that pass in various planes out to the membrane. 
In later stages when eight or more cells are present, processes were 
seen, both in profile and in surface view, passing out from various cells 
to the membrane. 
56 
