In his summary of the Aphroditaoea1 (1868) Dr. Baird showed that while Audouin
and Milne Edwards included six and Grube seven species, later authors had so increased
the number that. Kinberg found it convenient to form most of the older genera into
distinct families. He gives a description of the family Aphroditidte after Kinberg, with
four genera, viz. Aphrodita. Sermione, Aphrogenia, and Lastmonice. A succinot account of
the species follows under each genus, and he seems to have acquiesced in Dr. Johnston’s
view that Aphrodita borealis was a distinct species—a position he subsequently vacated,
this being only the young of A. aculeata. He added one or two new species to the list.
His Lastmonice Kiubergi, however, as he afterwards admitted, is identical with L.filicomis,
Kinberg, a species widely distributed in Northern waters.
Bay Lankester1 * 3 found haemoglobin in the nerve-cords of A. aculeata.
Grube next gave a survey of the family Aphroditidae (which included the whole
series here considered).* He divided the group into sub-sections thus:—a . The one
segment with elytra, the other with cirri; no jointed bristles. These he subdivided as
follows:—a. Between the elytra-bearing segments of the body one segment carrying a
dorsal cirrus; in the posterior part of the body mostly two bearing cirri, or the elytra
absent. 1. Hermionea (Aphroditaoea, Kinberg). 2. Polynoina. The first group, the,
Hermionea, which alone concerns us at present, he classified according to the condition
of the ventral bristles and the state of the eyes, (a) All the ventral bristles have simple
tips. In Aphrodita he gives as characters the following:—The ventral bristles in three
rows, short, thick; the dorsal bundle of all the segments bearing the elytra furnished
with longer and stronger bristles and two bundles of fineTiair-Hke bristles, the alternate
segments also with another felted series, under which the elytra lie; two eyes.
Schmarda4 5 6 included the Aphroditidae and Amphinomidse under his Notobranohiato
Chsetopods.
In his treatise on the Annelids collected by Semper in the Philippines (1878) Grube
terms the family Aphroditea. Besides the characters previously stated, he mentions
that all the segments bear ventral cirri and two fascicles of bristles, and that the fourth
and fifth segments always carry elytra. The stomach is subcartilaginous, and the
intestine has pinnate cseca.
Olaus* (1880) grouped under the family Aphroditid® the sub-families Herminionin®,
Polynoin®, Aeoetin®, Sigalionin®, and Polylepinm; while his second family was the
Palmyrid®. Under the Sigalionin® he embraced Psammolyce and Pholoe. -
Levinsen" (1883) follows Malmgren’s classification of the Aphroditid® in his paper
on the Northern Annelids.
Carus7 (1884) describes the genus Aphrodita as having fifteen pairs of elytra on
alternate feet, which are destitute of cirri; the intermediate bearing a cirrus and branchia;
1 ■ Journ. Linn., Soc./ vol. viii, 1865.
8 ‘ Ann. Nat. Hist./ 4th series, vol. xi, p. 97, 1878.
8 ‘ Sitznng. d. Schlesischen Gesell./ 1874.
4 ‘Zoologie/ 2nd edit., 1877, Wien.,
5 ‘ Grundzuge d. Zoolog./ 1880, pp. 490-98.
6 Aftryk, af. ' Vidensk. Meddel. f. d. Nat. Foren. i. Kjobenhavn/ 1882-3.
7 ‘ Fauna Mediterr./ 1884.
tentacles three; long tentacular cirri; maxilhe small or none; dorsum covered with a
close layer of felt; ventral spines simple at the apex.
In his ‘ Annelids of the * Blake ’ * (1887) Ehlers keeps to the family Aphroditidas, with
sub-families Hermionea, Polynoina, Acoetea, and Sigalionina. The Hermionea he distinguishes
by the facial tubercles and the arrangement of the scales ; and he separates them
from the Acoetea and Sigalionina by the condition of the branchiae and the structure of
the bristles.
Aphrodita aculeata, Linnæus, 1765. Plate XXIY, figs. 4 and 5.
Body broad, cephalic lobe inflated anteriorly, basal part of the tentacle only half
the length ; facial tubercle with sparsely distributed small globular papillae ; central
region of the gut differentiated from the complexly lobed glandular caeca ; spines of the
dorsal division of the foot long, piercing the felt ; capillary bristles greenish, iridescent
(burnished). Ventral bristles in three rows.
S yno nyms.
1554. Physalus, Rondelet. De Piscibus, p. 428.
1602. Scolopendra marina, Aldrovandus. Insect., p. 636, f. 1.
1634. Physalus, Moufet. Theatr., Insect., f. 8—15.
1677. Vermis aureus, Oligerus Jacobæus. Acta Hafniae, vol. iii, pp. 87, 88, and 89.
it ~ » )> Bartholinus. Act. Haf., vol. iii, p. 88, tab. 88.
1684. Eruca marina Rondeletii pilis in dorso instar colli columbini variegatis, Sibbald. Scot. Illustr.,
vol. ii, p. 32.
1686. Hystrix marina, Redi. Opusc., vol. iii, tab. 85.
1705. Scolopendra marina, Molyneux. Phil. Trans.' Abridg., 1st edit., vol. ii, pp. 833—836, pi. xii,
f. 234 and 235.
1714. Eruca echinata marina griseo fusca. Barrelier. Plantas Gall., &c., p. 181, tab. 1284, n. 1.
1734. „ ,, ,, Seba. Thesaur., vol. i, p. 141, tab. 90, f. 1—-3 ; vol. iii,
p. 9, tab. 4, f. 7, 8 (1758).
1746. Aphrodita nitens, Linn. Faun. Suec., p. 367, No. 1284; Mus. Adolph. Fred., p. 98.
1752. ,, elliptica versicolor, and the Sea Mouse, Hill. Hist. Anim., vol. iii, p. 90.
,, ,, sùbrotundata. Ibid., p. 91.
1756. Mus marinus, Linn. Syst., edit. 1756, p. 79.
1758. Physalus, Swammerdam. Biblia Naturae (transi.), vol. ii, p. 150, tab. 10.
1762. Aphrodita açuleata, Baster. Opusc. Subs., vol. ii, 2, p. 62, tab. 6, f. 1—4.
1765. „ , „ Gunner. Trondh. Selsk. Skrift, vol. iii, pp. 59—80, tab. 88.
1766. „ „ Pallas. Mise. Z qoL , p. 77, tab. vii, f. 1—13.
1768. ,,\ ‘ „ Gunner. K. Norske Selsk. Skrift, vol. iv, p. 95, tab. 10.
,, Physalus, Jonston. Hist. Nat., vol. iv, tab. 28.
1776. Aphrodita aculeata, O. F. Müller, Zool. Dan. Prod., p. 218, No. 2641.
1777. „ „ Penn. Brit. Zool., vol. iv, p. 44, pi. xxiii, f. 25, and edit. 1812, vol. iv,
p. 86, tab. 25, f. L
1788. „ „ Herbst. Vers., Bd. ix, p. 50, tab. 11.
1790. >„•, „ Linn. Syst. Nat.., Gmelin, t. i, pars 6, p. 3107.
1791. Aphrodite hérissée, Bruguière. Encyclop. Méth., vol. vi, p. 85.
1806. Aphrodita aculeata, Turton’s Gmelin, vol. iv, p. 79.
1807. „ ,, Turton. Brit. Fauna, p. 136.