GEPHYREA INERMIA--BENHAM. 
7 
ORDER SIPUNCULOIDEA. 
Family SIPUNLULID/E. 
Phascolosoma Leuckart . 
Phascolosoma margaritaceum, var. capsipormf. Baird. 
(Plate 11, figs. 1, 2.) 
P. margaritaceum Sars (1851), p. 25, cf. Selenka (1883), p. 25, for synonyms. 
P. capsiforme Baird (1868), p. 83, pi. IX, fig. 3. 
P. margaritaceum, var. capsiforme Fischer (1896), p. 3 (1914 a), p. 10. 
P. capsiforme Shipley (1902), p. 285. 
P. margaritaceum Theel (1911), p. 26. 
Five individuals were contained in the collection, varying in length from 160 mm. 
to 28 mm. 
The remarks that follow apply to the largest. 
The skin is a dirty grey, rather silvery, tending to a pale greyish-brown at the 
hinder end and on various parts of the body, which suggests that the epidermis had 
been rubbed off from parts. To the naked eye the skin looks smooth except at the 
hinder end, which is rather rough owing to circular furrows. One specimen obtained 
from Station 1 has a white silvery surface. 
In the two smallest individuals the body wall is sufficiently translucent to 
allow the densely-coiled gut to be seen within. 
Of the five specimens the majority have the hinder end rounded, but one of 
them, the next in size to that measured (below), is produced into a point exactly like 
Baird’s figure of P. capsiforme. The condition, then, of the hinder end seems to be 
due to the state of contraction of the muscles of the body wall. 
Under a hand lens the whole skin is seen to be traversed by fine, closely-set 
furrows, running round the body, and in some specimens with delicate longitudinal, 
undulating, and anastomising furrows. In the islands between these are minute 
scattered transparent dots, which are irregularly arranged and widely spaced. These, 
when studied under the microscope, are found to be the openings of glands, seated on 
low, rounded papillae of a pale yellowish colour, and the sides are tesselated (figs. 1, 2). 
In many cases the gland aperture is flush with the surface of the skin, though whether 
this is caused by the maceration of the epidermis I am unable to state. 
In the various mounts I noted one exceptional papilla, which has a skittle shape; 
that is, it is constricted at the base. On the introvert and towards the hinder end of 
the body the papillae are more densely arranged, and in some cases have the form of a 
mammilla, the aperture being seated on a teat-like prominence. 
