granular contents, and in connection with a gland, also granular, at the side of the shaft.
The canal opens on the convex side of the organ a little short of the tip. The shaft is
finely striated longitudinally, the striae converging as the hook narrows distally and
ceasing within the tip.
The ordinary hooks are arranged on small ridges beneath the bristle-tufts anteriorly
from the fourth segment backward. The lamellae which carry the hooks are at first
minute, but by-and-by they project as small flaps with a tendency to a prolongation
ventrally. The hooks (Plate CXXV, fig. 1 b) present a rounded crown with four teeth
on the front edge, increasing in size from the first to the third, the fourth having a broad
base but a shorter fang, for the gulf above the rounded prow is short. The posterior
margin is sinuous and the base rounded. Behind the bristled region the lamellaa become
more prominent and have a small papilla dorsally.
The tube is coated with greyish mud and lined with tough secretion. Attached
externally in Norwegian examples are fragments of shells—it may be in considerable
numbers—and occasionally globular arenaceous Foraminifera, with grains of sand in mud,
and here and there a leaf of an alga.
This species was first described by M. Sars1 (1851) under the title of Sabellides
cristata as having eight tentacular cirri borne on a collar or crest with crenulations,
fifteen thoracic segments bearing bristles (besides three anterior tufts without mamillas).
J. Percy Moore8 (1905) describes Melinna cristata, sp., nov., from the North Pacific
(Alaska) as closely resembling Malmgren’s species. It differs in the more finely
denticulated post-branchial membrane, larger size and more numerous segments. Thé
hooks are similar.
Augener’s3 Melinna profunda appears to be only -a variety of M. cristata, and the
hooks agree.
2. Melinna Elisabeths, McIntosh, 1914. Plate CXIX, fig. 1—dorsal collar; Plate
CXXY, figs. 2—2 5—bristle and hooks.
Specific Characters.— Cephalic region similar to that of M. cristata, but with a slight
notch anteriorly and two lateral eminences. The tentacular plate and tentacles often
extend beyond it. Tentacles remarkably long. Body similar to that of M. cristata, the
number of segments being variable. Branchiae arise from two basal processes, but they
do not divide into an anterior and a posterior pair. Dorsal collar shorter, with smaller
conical processes than in M. ciistata, and often in groups of three. In front of the collar
a distinct conical process passes forward to the space between the branchiae. Ventrally
the lateral edges of the body-collar are less prominent. The post-branchial hooks have a
broad, almost ovoid, flatténed shaft, which abruptly narrows anteriorly and is boldly
curved into a rounded and apparently solid terminal hook. Bristles as in M. cristata.
Hooks usually present only four teeth, and differ slightly in curves, especially at the base.
Tube of tough secretion coated with a little mud and occasional fragments of shells.
1 Sars,f Ny t Mag./ Bd. vi, p. 205.
2 ‘Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philadelphia/ December, 1905, p. 851.
* f Westind. Polych. Bull. Mus. Comp. Anat., U.S.A./ p. 181, Taf. vi, figs. 12G, 127, Taf. vii, fig. 128.
- Synonym.
1914. Melitmct elisabethx, McIntosh. Ann. Nat. Hist., sev. 8, vol. xiii, p. 106.
Habitat.—In the stomach of the haddock and flounder, St. Andrews Bay (E. M.).
Abundant in the Fjords of Norway, where it was collected by Canon Norman and Hessle.
The specimens of this species were first obtained in Britain by my mother in the
stomachs of haddocks, and consequently the external configuration was altered. The
presence of the same form in Norwegian waters (dredged by Dr. Merle Norman) enables
a more satisfactory description to be made.
The head and anterior region, while formed on the general plan of M. cristata, have
proportionally longer branchiae and tentacles. The cephalic border anteriorly has a
slight notch and two lateral eminences, the tentacular plate and the tentacles being often
pushed beyond it. The tentacles are remarkably long, and the mouth forms a gaping
aperture beneath them, at the end of the bluntly conical region.
The branchiae arise from two basal processes where they are fused, and they are
longer and more distinctly tapered than in M. cristata. Moreover they do not lend
themselves to a transverse division into an anterior and a posterior pair as in M. cristata.
The outer and more slender branchia separates readily to the base, and the next to it
posteriorly nearly as far, but the two inner (the one in front of the other) are united for
a considerable distance above the base. Their arrangement therefore differs from that in
M. cristata. The dorsal collar stretches in the same manner as in the latter, but the free
edges of the two differ, for instead of the very large, regular, conical processes of
M. cristata this form has smaller conical processes often in groups of three (Plate CXIX,
fig. 2), and there is less regularity. The edge of the collar thus differs under a lens, and
the collar is often narrower from side to side. In front of the denticulated collar a
distinct conical process passes forward to the space between the branchiae. On the ventral
surface again the body-collar has not the prominent lateral edges seen in M. cristata.
The post-branchiaT hooks are diagnostic,. and their position is the same as in
M. cristata. They have a broad, almost ovoid flattened shaft, the base of which is often
oblique. Anteriorly it somewhat abruptly narrows, and is boldly curved forward as a
rounded, tapering and apparently solid hook (Plate CXXV, fig. 2 a) with a sharp point. The
broad shaft is marked by fine longitudinal lines which are continued beyond the curve
and toward the tip of the hook, and also shows slightly curved cross striaa which pass
forward to the neck of the hook an& then cease, the tip being homogeneous and clear.
It is moved by powerful muscles attached to the shaft. The concavity of the hook has a
thick layer of chitin, but no canal could be made out. Such a hook differs from that of
Melvma cristata in outline and structure as well as in the absence of the canal at the tip.
The bristles (Plate CXXV, fig. 2) have the same structure as in M. ciistata, viz.,
translucent, striated shafts and winged, tapering tips, and they are accompanied by the
shorter series as in the previous form. The hooks (Plate CXXV, fig. 2 b) resemble those
of the other species, but whilst in M. cristata they often show five teeth, in M. elisabethae
four is the usual number, and the curves slightly differ.
The tube of this form consists of tough secretion coated with a little mud, and having
fragments of shell attached here and there by the edges. The gastric juice of the fishes
does not seem to affect the tubes much, though their inhabitants are rapidly softened.