WORM PIPEFISH. 
about 2 — 2 V, % of the length of the body, in the latter 
at least as much as 3 '7* % thereof. The terete tail 
tapers regularly to its end. Here, as in the iEquoreal 
Pipefish, the difference between the sexes is most dis- 
tinctly expressed externally by the form of the trunk. 
In the males this part is somewhat flattened, especially 
at the middle of its length, and the breadth of the flat 
ventral side, to which the eggs are attached, is greater 
than the depth of the body at the same point. In the 
females the trunk is laterally compressed, and also fur- 
nished, when the fish is in full dress, with a longi- 
tudinal carina at the middle both of the back and the 
belly, the latter carina being here too the more pro- 
minent. Thus the structure of the males in this respect 
comes very near the form of the body in the Australian 
genus Stigmatopliora , which is furnished, however, with 
pectoral fins, and in which the males carry the eggs 
under their tails. 
In specimens from 10 to 12 cm. long the length 
of the head varies between 8 (7‘8) and l x j 2 %, in older 
specimens between j 2 and 7 % of the length of the 
body, or between about 25 1 / a and 23 V 3 % of the distance 
from the dorsal tin to the tip of the snout. The most 
characteristic point in the head of this species is the 
form of the snout, a reminiscence of the larval stage 
of all the other Syngnathincc. The snout is compara- 
tively short, measuring in young specimens — between 
10 and 12 cm. long — only about 1 / 4 , in older speci- 
mens about V 3 (30— 32V 2 %) °f the length of the head, 
and also turned up like a pug’s nose, with a more or 
less selliform depression in the superior profile. The tip 
of the lower jaw projects upwards to a level with the 
tip of the snout, which is hollowed to receive it. The 
longitudinal diameter of the eyes is about half the length 
of the snout. The postorbital length of the head 
measures about half its entire length. 
The dorsal fin is of uniform height. The length 
of its base is about 9 or 10 % (8’8 — 10’5 %) of the 
length of the body. The distance between it and the 
tip of the snout is about 30 % (29'6 — 30'5 %) of the 
length of the body. The vent lies below its anterior 
part, at a distance from the tip of the snout that mea- 
sures about V 3 (32'5 — 33'3 %) of the length of the 
body. The length of the tail is thus always more than 
twice that of the trunk behind the opercula. 
The coloration is far from ugly. “Its usual ground- 
colour," writes Fries, “is chestnut-brown, in some cases 
a Nat . Hist . Irel ., vol. IV, p. 242. 
087 
lighter, in others darker. Along the back lie large, 
irregular spots of whitish gray, which are broken up 
on the tail into numerous, smaller spots and give this 
part of the body a mottled appearance.” The head is 
also mottled above and below with whitish gray spots, 
framed with darker colour, and two or three of these 
spots are especially constant and prominent, obliquely 
in front of, below, and obliquely behind the eyes, rising 
from the isthmus. On the tail the spots are arranged 
more or less distinctly in transverse rows; and in a fe- 
male from the Weather Islands (Bohuslan), which lias 
lain in spirits for some years, but preserved its colora- 
tion remarkably well, this arrangement is distinct on 
the forepart of the body also. The dermal carina on 
the belly of this specimen seems to have been edged 
with darker colour. The iris is yellow, with a ring of 
round spots. 
This coloration is probably connected with the ha- 
bits of the fish. The Worm Pipefish seems to prefer 
deep water, where the brown tint prevails among the 
algae. It has even been found crawling on a, clayey 
bottom, where it lias been taken in the dredge in com- 
pany with those marine Annelids, crustaceans, and mol- 
lusks whose young and larva? probably form the chief 
part of its food. On the Irish coast too, according to 
Thompson", this species has been taken in the dredge 
in deep water, though it also lives between the tide- 
marks, where it hides under stones. 
The spawning-season seems to be somewhat later 
than in the preceding species. The eggs are set in 
four, more regular rows and less firmly attached 
(less deeply imbedded in mucus). Collett estimated 
their number in different males at 63 and 78; in a 
male 135 mm. long we have counted 88 eggs, about 
l 1 /-, nim. in diameter. 
It was in this species that Fries made the first 
observations of the retrogressive metamorphosis of the 
genus Neropliis, observations which have since been ex- 
tended, as we have seen, to all the Scandinavian species 
of the genus. One of the last days in September, 1837, 
Fries had obtained a male specimen to which the eggs 
still adhered. He placed the specimen in a vessel of 
water, and endeavoured to keep it alive for some time, 
in order to observe the hatching of the eggs and the 
relations between the young and their father. As the 
latter had no marsupium in which the young might 
hide at the approach of danger, Fries expected to see 
Sea n din a v ia n Fis h es . 
87 
