The tubes of the Norwegian examples are of tough secretion coated with fine mud and
here and there an arenaceous Foraminifer. It is curious that this species has never been
tossed on shore at St. Andrews. It probably inhabits the deeper water. It is the
common form in Norway.
8. Melinna palmata, Grube, 1869 (=M . adriatica, Marenzeller). Plate CXIII, fig.^ 1
body; Plate CXIX, fig. 2—edge of dorsal collar; Plate CXXV, figs. 3—3c—
bristles, hooks and setigerous process.
Specific Characters.—Cephalic region generally as in Melinna cnstata, but differing in
the minute size of the post-branchial hooks and in the conspicuously barred condition of
the branchiae, which are arranged .as in M. elisdbethæ—that is, are not placed one in front
of the other. The membranous crest of the fourth segment has four to eight rounded
teeth. Tentacles four. Anterior region of the body typical (with eighteen bristled
segments). Bristles rather stronger than in M. cristata and the shorter series more
distinctly curved. Anterior hooks with five teeth and a process between the last and
the prow ; thirty-six to forty-seven in single rows, except the first and the last.
Of a dull or slightly purplish pink hue, the branchiae varying from pink to pale pink.
Tube rather friable, composed of secretion coated with mud.
Synonyms.
1869.
1874.
1875..
1885.
1893.
1895.
1904.
1909.
1910.
1917.
Melinna palmata, Grube. Jahresber. nat. Scbles. Gesell., p. 40.
„ adriatica, Marenzeller. Sitzb. Akad. Wien, vol. lxix, p. 472, pi. vii, fig. 6.
„ ,,. Panceri. Atti Soc. Ital., vol. xviii, p. 532.
- „ ,, Marion. Rev. Sc. nat., t. iv, p. 307. -
„ „ Cams. Fauna Medit., vol. i, p. 269.
t} ,, Marenzeller. Denkschrift K. Akad. wiss. Wien, Bd. lx, p. 34, Taf. ii,’fig. 6.
,, palmata, Lo Bianco. Atti R. Accad. Sc. Nap., vol. v, No. 11, p. 65.
„ „ Fauvel. Mém. Soc. National des Sc. Nat. Cherbourg, t. xxix, p. 345, pi. xxiv,
fig. 148.
,, adriatica, Allen. Journ. M. B. A., vol. vi, p. 230.
„ palmata, Fauvel. Bull. Inst. Ocean., No. 142, p. 22.
„ adriatica, Elwes. Journ. M. B. A., vol. xi, p. 6.
f adriatica, Rioja. Anél. Poliq. Cantâb., p. 45.
‘ Hessle. Zool. Bidrag. Uppsala, v, p. 94.
Habitat.—Common in soft mud in Plymouth Sound, on the shore and in deeper water
(Allen) ; Torquay, amongst Zostera roots (Elwes).
Abroad it occurs in the Adriatic (Marenzeller) ; Monaco (Fauvel); St. Malo and
Chausey (Grube and Fauvel) ; shores of Cantabria (Rioja).
In general aspect this form approaches Melinna cristata, though it differs in the
appearance of the branchiae and the obscurity of the hooks. The snout bears a series of
smooth tentacles, about twelve in number, the shorter forms being inferior. They occur
on the dorsal base of a funnel-shaped process—-apparently the homologue of the cephalic
MELINNA PALMATA. 89
plate of the Terebellids—which leads to the mouth. In his account of the species Marenzeller
mentions only four tentacles, but they are easily removed in preparations. The
shape of fhe anterior region of the body agrees with that of the typical forms, three
bristle-tufts being borne by the oblique anterior part. The ventral collar behind the
snout is prominent and smooth, the angle in front of the first bristle-bundle being
conspicuous in a ventral view. Posteriorly the body terminates in an anus with a
somewhat dilated rim.
The branchiae resemble in general aspect those of M. cristata, though distinguished
by their transverse bars and arrangement, for the four branchiae on each side arise from a
curved base and are all visible from the rear. The branchial hooks are minute and
readily escape detection, and thus are in contrast with the two forms most abundant in the
north. The shaft is broad and short (Plate CXXV, fig. 3 a), striated, and the sharp hook
at the tip leaves the neck at more than a right angle, the whole being similar to that of
Melinna maculata, Webster, which approaches Grube’s form. Behind the foregoing region
at the fourth bristled segment is the dorsal collar (Plate CXIX, fig. 1), which is somewhat
narrower and less distinctly denticulated than in the two forms previously mentioned, the
papillae having a tendency to fuse with each other and thus lose the feature so
characteristic of M. cristata. There are usually four to eight rounded fimbriae.
The tip of the foot (Plate CXXV, fig. 3 c) is more distinctly differentiated than in
M. cnstata as a bluntly conical process marked off from the rest of the foot by a
shoulder. Moreover, the bristles are proportionally larger and more deeply tinted yellow
by transmitted light. The longer forms (Plate CXXV, fig. 3) have nearly straight shafts
and finely-tapered tips with just a trace of a bend and with distinct but narrow wings,
whereas the shorter bristles have boldly-curved tips which in some are much worn. The
wings of these commenced a little beyond the cuticle. The number of the setigerous
processes is the same as in the other forms, viz., eighteen, the first three being immersed
in the tissues and the tips appearing beyond the surface.
The anterior hooks, which are in a single row (Plate CXXV, fig. 3 b), follow a similar
arrangement to those of the other species but have five teeth besides a process above
the prow, and thus a greater number as a rule than in the two previous forms. The
posterior outline is inflected, whilst the inferior border of the base, after a slight inflection
posteriorly, becomes convex as it approaches the anterior prow. The posterior hooks
do not differ materially from the foregoing except in size. They are distinguished from
those of Melinna maculata, Webster, by having a process between the prow and the
first tooth.
The tube is composed of secretion covered with a layer of mud. It is friable.
Grube describes Melinna palmata from St. Malo, where he obtained a single specimen,
as having a smooth (entire) margin to the dorsal collar on the fourth bristled segment
instead of the fimbriated margin of M. cristata and M. elisabethae. There are eight
branchiae which differ at their base from those of. M. cristata, and in the spirit-preparation
the anterior and the inner filaments of the posterior branchia are longer and more pointed
than the rest. The frontal border is three-lobed as in M. elisabethae. The hooks have four
teeth. No mention is made of the two dorsal post-branchial hooks, and though Fauvel
subsequently alludes to them as the homologues of the palese and transformed dorsal