r 
ABRANCHIA. 
397 
The Antilles possess a large one, which inhabits a tube of the consistence of leather. The Phyllodoce maxillosa, 
Ranzani, named Polyodante by Reinieri, and Eumolpe maxima, Oken, appear to be nearly allied, having the 
same trunk and jaws, and neither genus having perhaps been described from perfect specimens. Many species 
of Annelides remain, which have been too imperfectly described to admit of their being characterized ; and the 
Myriane, and two or three other genera of M. Savigny, must remain to be examined anew. 
Finally, we place here a new and very singular genus, which I name 
Ch^topterus. 
Mouth with neither jaws nor trunk, hut furnished above with a lip, to which three small tentacles 
are attached. A disk then follows with nine pairs of feet, after which is a pair of long silky bundles 
like two wings. The lamina-formed gills are attached more towards the upper surface than the lower, 
[Here also ought probably to be placed the genus 
Peripatus of Guilding, founded upon a West Indian 
species, which burrows in the sand, and which has 
much perplexed naturalists as to its relations. By 
Guilding it was considered as molluscous; by Mac 
Leay as forming the passage between the lulidce and 
the annulose annelidous worms; whilst Gray {Zool. 
Misc. p. 6) asserts that it is annelidous, and connects 
Nereis with Lumbricus^ 
THE THIRD ORDER OF THE ANNELIDES,— 
ABRANCHIA,— 
Have no respiratory organ appearing externally, and seem to respire either, as in the 
Earthworms, over the whole surface of the skin, or, as in the Leeches, by internal cavities. 
Some of them have yet bristles to serve for locomotion, of which others are deprived, and they 
accordingly fall into two families. 
THE FIRST FAMILY OF THE ABRANCHIA,— 
The Abranchia Setigera,— 
Which are provided with silky bristles, comprise the Earthworms and Naides of Lkanaeus. 
The Earthworms {Lumbricus, Linn.) — 
Are characterized by a long, cylindrical body, divided by transverse furrows into a great number of 
rings, and by a mouth without teeth : they require to be thus subdivided: 
The True Earthworms {Lumbricus, Cuv.) — 
Have neither eyes, tentacles, gills, nor cirrhi : a distinct enlargement, particularly during the breeding 
season, indicates where they attach themselves to one another in the act of copulating. Internally 
they have a straight, wrinkled intestine, and some whitish glands towards the fore part of the body, 
which appear to serve for generation. It is certain that they are hermaphrodite, and it seems that 
their contact only serves to excite each other to self-fecundation. According to M. Montegne, the 
eggs descend between the intestine and external envelope, as far as around the rectum, where they 
hatch, the young crawling out alive by the anus. M. Dufour states, on the contrary, that they deposit 
eggs analogous to those of the Leeches. Their nervous chord consists of a series of an infinitude of little 
ganglia, serrated one against another.* 
M. Savigny subdivides them fm’ther into Enterion, having on each ring four pairs of little bristles, eight 
throughout, to which belongs 
The Common Earthworm (L. terrestris, Linn.).— This well-known species attains to nearly a foot in length, with 
• This is common to very many species, as M. Savigny first observed. As many as twenty have been been characterised. M. Dnges only 
distinguishes six. 
and range along the middle of the body. 
Fig. 205.— Peripatus luliformis. 
