JOURNAL 
OF THE 
ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 
DECEMBER 1890. 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 
X . — The Tube-building Habits of Terebella littoralis. 
By Arnold T. Watson. 
( Bead 19 th November , 1890.) 
Plate XIV. 
It is a well-known characteristic of certain Annelids, of the family 
Terebellidse, that they inhabit tubes which they have themselves 
carefully constructed with grains of sand, stones, broken shells, and 
similar materials cemented together, and their method of building 
such tubes has, in a general way, been more or less clearly described 
by Daly ell, Gosse, J. G. Wood, and others. Some of these dwellings 
are simply tubes of an internal diameter adapted to the worm which 
inhabits them, and of variable length, the greater portion being 
buried in the sand, but with a free open end rising above the surface. 
In certain species (as Terebella littoralis) this free end is ornamented 
with remarkable arborescent or pectinate processes, the delicate 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE XIV. 
Fig. 1. — Sketch of living Terebella in tube t , collecting sand with its tentacles te, 
and showing especially the lips p used in building. Ventral view. 
Tube in section. 
„ 2. — Ditto, showing tentacles te , lip p stretched upward to receive building 
material, and the tree-like branchiae Br protruding from mouth of tube t. 
Lateral view. 
„ 3. — Terebella placing sand on edge of tube by means of lip p ; grains of sand gr 
shown travelling down tentacles te. 
„ 4. — Sketch showing hood-shaped prostomium (lip) p placing sand-grains gr one 
above another in line to form filaments fl. Some filaments already 
formed. Unciniw; setae ch. Ventral view. 
„ 5. — Diagram showing lateral view of prostomium p. Sand-grains gr travelling 
up inside to be attached in due course. 
„ 6. — Sketch of tube with pebbles and broken shells attached, showing flattened 
bushy head of sandy filaments. Natural size. From a rock-pool. 
„ 7. — Sketch of bushy tube with large pebbles and coralline attached, showing 
close resemblance between the sandy filaments and the coralline. 
Natural size. From a rock-pool. 
„ 8. — Transverse section of tentacle of Terebella, showing the hollow interior i } 
and the ciliated groove cl. x 100. 
1890. 3 c 
