ANNELIDA CH^TOPODA OF THE VIEGINIAN 



COAST. 

 By H. E. Webster. 



[Read before the Albany Institute, Oct. 15, 1878.] 



The Annelida catalogued and described in the follow- 

 ing pages were collected in the summer months of 1874 

 and 1876, by the zoological expeditions which, for some 

 years past. Union College has sent out during the summer 

 vacation. The locality was in Northampton Co., Virginia, 

 (Eastern shore of Va.), between the main-land and the 

 line of outside islands. Collecting on the eastern shore is 

 in many respects unpleasant. The coast is monotonous ; 

 there is very little variety of station, unless a change from 

 soft black mud to softer blacker mud can be called variety. 

 At low- water a great area is exposed, but from high-water 

 mark to the edges of the channels it is always mud; and 

 when the dredge is let down it comes up filled with the 

 same variety of mud ; of course under such circumstances 

 the work itself can not be pleasant. However, there was 

 abundence of life. At low water the flats were black with 

 llyanassa obsoleia Stimp., and two species of Gelasimus 

 were present in numbers that defied computation ; oysters 

 and blue-crabs were everywhere ; Amphitrite ornaia was so 

 common that in many places their extended tentacles 

 almost touched each other ; Marphysa sanguinea appeared 

 at every turn of the spade or haul of the dredge; Nereis 

 limbaia, Drilonereis longa, Cirratulus grandis^ Enoplohranchus 

 sanguineus and other worms were present in the mud in 

 great numbers; small annelids and molluscs abounded 

 among the oysters. By far the greater part of our work 

 was done with the spade at low-water. With the excep- 

 tion of the Syllidse and some other small forms, nearly 

 every species dredged was also found between tides. In 

 a few places we found what our boatmen called " rocky 



