and a facial tubercle between the palpi and the front of the mouth. Tentacle extending
from the middle of the cephalic lobe. No antennæ. The sessile or subpedunculated
eyes are situated in front of the middle of the cephalic lobe. The palpi are long, thick,
tapering, and ciliated; and two tentacular cirri are on each side of the first pair of feet..
The buccal cirri (ventral pair of the second feet) are longer than the succeeding. The
exsertile pharynx has ridge-like transverse processes—gwasi-cartilaginous, and resembling
jaws. The branchiae are in the form of low papillae, situated above and internal to the
bases of the dorsal cirri, and covered by the elytra. They are not always obvious. The
elytra occur on segments 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, &c. The other families were Iphionea, Polynoina,
Acoëtea, Sigalionina, Pholoidea, and Palmyracea.
The genus Aphrodita he distinguished as follows :—Eyes sessile (pigment-spots in
pairs). First pair of feet furnished with numerous bristles, and with tentacular cirri.
Dorsal division of the foot distinct from the ventral, low (small) and broad, with strong
sharp spines and capillary bristles, forming a kind of felt on the dorsum ; ventral division
carried outwards, blunt, with numerous bristles, smooth, acute, but neither glochidiate
nor bidentate.
Chenu1 (1859) chiefly followed Milne Edwards in placing the Aphroditiens as the
first family of his Annélides Errantes, the Amphinomiens and Euniciens forming the
second and third families.
In the posthumous * British Annelids ’ of Dr. G. Johnston, published by the British
Museum in 1865, the first family, Aphroditaceæ, included not only the genera pertaining
to the Aphroditidæ, but the Polynoidæ and Sigalionidær The author followed in his
description Audouin and Milne Edwards. He gives three species of Aphrodita, viz. the
common form, A. borealis (which is the young of the former) and A. hystrix (Hermione
hystrix). Like Grube, he classified the Annelids under the Rapacia and Limivora.
De Quatrefages2 included the whole of the group forming the subject of this fasciculus
—with the exception of the Amphinomidæ and Euphrosynidæ—under the family Aphroditidæ,
in which the regions of the body are similar while the segments are dissimilar.
They fall under his first order Errantes. The author criticised the classification of
Kinberg, and held that only two families existed in the sub-order, viz. the Aphroditidæ
and the Palmyridæ, the one characterised by the presence and the other by the absence
of scales. The Aphroditidæ form a very natural family of the Errant Annelids. The
head bears two to three antennæ and two to four eyes ; while the buccal segment is often
indistinct, and with or without tentacles. The body is more or less covered by the
elytra, and the segments present differences which are repeated with regularity. The
antennæ (tentacles) receive their nerves directly from the brain, and their number is at
most three. The external antennæ (palpi) are really the tentacles of the buccal ring, and
receive their nerves from a special ganglion. The nerves of the tentacular cirri, again,
come from the first ganglion of the ventral chain, being modified processes of the first
pair of feet. The head bears a kind of caruncle (facial tubercle ?) in front. The eyes in
general are small, resting on the brain, though in some they are pedunculated and susceptible
of movement. The mouth has thick lips.
1 ‘ Encyclop. d’Hist. Nat./ 1859.
2 1 Annélés Marins, &c./ 1865.
The feet are biramous, bearing scales or tentacular cirri, in general only the one or
the other. The ventral cirrus occurs on all the feet. Some have a resplendent covering
of hairs, and a felt-liko coating on the dorsum protecting the scales. Those without
such , sometimes show a radiate arrangement of the bristles. In the scales he describes
a lacunar system in connection with the general cavity of the body, and therefore he
thinks Savigny was right in associating them with respiration, though he was so far
misled by a balloon-like condition in imperfectly preserved specimens. He does not
regard the elevated and ciliated processes on the dorsum of the feet as branchiaa, for
they have no central vessel and no lacuna), and the cutaneous tissues present no special
modification. On the other hand, De Quatrefages saw in the pretended branchial function
Of the branching digestive system an analogy with what he had formerly described in the
dHolidas as phlebenterism.
The circulatory apparatus he says agrees jvith the typical condition, but is difficult
to follow, as the blood is pale. There are dorsal and ventral vessels as described by Trevi-
ran’us, and a third considerable trunk accompanying inferiorly the abdominal nerve-chain.
The cephalic ganglia are comparatively large, and the exterior thereof brownish red.
The ventral chain has the ganglia united, though in general the two halves are distinct.
No commissure exists between the lateral.ganglia of the first three pairs of foet—a condition
absent in the Polynoidas. The visceral system of nerves consists of a muscular
trunk and a ganglion with a connective joining the brain. It supplies the muscles of the
proboscis..
The only remarks the author makes in .regard to the reproduction of the group is,
that in a large number of examples of Aphrodita, hystrix he found irregular mounds pon-
Hfsting of eggs enveloped by delicate tissue along the digestive canal and touching the
body-wall. These individuals consequently showed a large number of ova or of sperms
in the perivisceral cavity. Further, in a male he observed sperms escape as a white
thread at the base of the ventral division of the foot about-the nineteenth segment.
The classification adopted by De Quatrefages was based for the most part on
external characters, such as the arrangement of the scales, the absence, alternate or continuous
condition of the dorsal cirri, the nature of the antennae (tentacles), and the jaws.
In his general remarks on the Aphroditidae, OlaparCdejScorrects the error of
Williams that vibratile cilia are absent from the peritoneal surface of Aphrodita aculeata.
This author was, however, in doubt concerning the vascular system, for though he found
a dorsal and a ventral vessel according to the old observations of Pallas and Treviranus,
yet he could not satisfy himself that they pertained to the vascular system. He makes
a few remarks also about thesfespiration in the group, stating that in Hermione hystrix,
during the alternation of expansion and contraction, the last pair Of scales in the latter
function are raised, and a powerful stream of water sent out. The same is seen, though
to a much less notable extent, in A. aeuleata. In the latter species bubbles of air
sometimes accompany the currents, so that Swammerdam had some foundation for the
remark that the Aphroditse swallow (gorgeant) air. He had, however, overlooked the
observation of Sir J. G. Dallyel when he said former authors had not observed these
respiratory movements,.
‘ Ann. Chét. Napol./ J868.