COE: TERRESTRIAL NEMERTEAN OF BERMUDA. 567 
smaller size than those living in the soil which is a little above the 
reach of the tide, but in earth which is nearly saturated with salt 
water. 
The worms do not burrow in the soil, but lie beneath stones and 
other substances that will protect them from the rays of the sun 
and also, it is to be supposed, from their enemies. They are often 
found at some distance beneath the surface of the soil, having fol- 
lowed the burrows made by earthworms. 
It is of interest to note that another species of nemertean, be¬ 
longing to the genus Lineus, occurs in some of the same localities 
and is found from the zone of half tide nearly up to high-water mark. 
This Lineus often occurs under the same stone with specimens of 
Geonemertes, and like the latter will live a long time in earth moist¬ 
ened with sea water. 
Willemoes-Sulim (’74, p. 411) observed that the land nemerteans 
are not injured by pouring fresh water over the earth in which they 
are living, but that immersion in fresh water kills them in a few 
hours. 
Numerous individuals were subjected to a series of experiments 
by the writer, and demonstrated their extreme hardiness by surviv¬ 
ing under the most rigorous conditions. A dozen worms placed 
in a jar of sea water lived for several weeks without food or 
change of water. Unless disturbed they spent their whole time, at 
least in daylight, above the surface of the water, clinging in a hori¬ 
zontal position against the sides of the vessel in which they were 
contained. Several specimens were usually stretched out side by 
side in close contact. In damp earth the worms were as active at 
the end of four weeks as at the beginning. In such earth they col¬ 
lect in groups in small cavities which they find and which the}^ line 
with their mucous secretions. The earth can even become compar¬ 
atively dry without injury to the worm. Freshwater can be added 
in considerable amount to the soil or to the salt water in which the 
worms are living with no apparent unfavorable results, although the 
worms will not live in fresh water alone. 
The origin of the land nemerteans has been the cause of a con¬ 
siderable amount of speculation, most writers holding that they 
must have come from marine forms. Montgomery, however, in a 
very suggestive paper (’95a, p. 483) argues that most, if not all 
land nemerteans probably have descended from fresh-water forms. 
