MICROPHTHALMUS SCZELKOWII. 445 
Reproduction—At Plymouth, females have well-developed eggs from January to April 
(Allen), and Southern’s example had large ova about the same period. De St. Joseph, again, 
found that ripe males were greyish, and that when the females were ripe the large grey eggs, 
which filled the hollows of the feet, were discharged into a thin, colourless membranous 
pouch. 
The foregoing description is chiefly taken from Marion and Bobretzky’s account. De 
St. Joseph found Ophyryodendon annulatorum on the tentacular cirri. Southern states 
that it swims gracefully through the water, stops, and even swims backward when its 
progress is arrested. 
Genus MicRoPpHTHALMUS, Mecznikow, 1865. 
Head with a single pair of eye-specks devoid of lenses; five unjointed tentacles, and 
three pairs of tentacular cirri on each side, all smooth. Body like that of Podarke, and 
has a rudimentary dorsal branch to the foot, but it is distinguished from that genus by the 
presence of only two eyes, and by the flattened posterior extension of the pygidium. 
Bobretzky found two hermaphrodite species, M. fragilis and M. similis, in the Black Sea, 
MICROPHTHALMUS SCZELKOWII, Mecznikow, 1865. Plate CXXXIV, figs. 6, 6a and 6b— 
bristles. 
Specific Characters —The head rounded in front, indented posteriorly ; single pair of 
black, kidney-shaped eyes at its posterior part ; four slender, tapering tentacles in front, 
the dorsal slightly longer than the ventral, and all devoid of a basal articulation ; median 
tentacle at the posterior indentation; three pairs of tentacular cirri, somewhat enlarged 
at the base, on each side. Body widest in the anterior third, tapering slightly anteriorly 
and more distinctly posteriorly, 6 mm. long, and with forty segments. Lateral regions 
flattened, leaving a prominent dorsal ridge in the preparations. Dorsum with a considerable 
amount of brown pigment, forming ill-defined transverse bands in each segment. Anal 
segment consists of a thickened, deeply pigmented ring, produced backward into a hood- 
shaped plate, with the anus dorsal at the posterior border of the thickened ridge, which 
also carries two slender cirri. Proboscis with a series of papillze anteriorly. Dorsal cirrus 
of the third segment is the longest appendage. Dorsal cirri twice as long as the ventral. 
Dorsal division of the foot carries a single slender spine, and a single small bristle with 
a pectinate or lyrate tip; ventral division with a single large spine, and a fan-like series of 
compound bristles with the characteristic Hesionid structure and both longer and shorter 
tips. 
SYNONYMS. 
1865. Microphthalmus Sczelkowii, Mecznikow. Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool., Bd. xv, p. 334, Taf. xxiv, 
figs. 10—12. 
1914. 35 Southern. Proc. Roy. Irish Acad., vol. xxxi, No. 47, p. 45, pl. v, 
figs. 6 a—e. 
1921. rr rs McIntosh. Ann. Nat. Hist., ser. 9, vol. vin, p. 299. 
