Genus YI.—L&tmatonice, Kinberg, 1854.
Eyes on short peduncles placed near the anterior border of the head, dorsum
covered with felt. Spines of the elytra-bearing feet glochidiate, other segments with
lateral bundles of stout bristles and a tuft of hair-like bristles. Bristles of the
ventral branch semi-pinnate. Intestinal caeca strictly dorsal, arising on each side of the
median dorsal vessel. Segmental organs (nephridia) opening externally by a papilla
directed upwards between the feet. Nerve-cords flattened, less distinctly separated than
in Aphrodita.
1. LiGTMATONiOE f il ic o r n i s , Kinberg, 1855. Plate XXIY, fig. 9.
Cephalic lobe rounded, two curved longitudinal lines making it tripartite; facial
tubercle with long mammillate papillae.
Elytra obliquely reniform, with minute cells.
Glochidiate spines with three or four teeth.
S yno nyms.
1843.
1850. •
1855.
1857-8.
1859.
1861.
1865.
1869.
1873.
1875.
1879.
1885.
1887.
1894.
1896.
Aphrodita hystrix, Oersted. Ann. Danic. Consp., p. 11.
■ ». ■ » Sars. Nyt. Mag. Naturv., 1850, vol. vi, p. 210, n. 57.
Lætmatonice filicomis, Kinberg. Ofversigt Kongl. vet. Akad., 1855, p. 382.
„ ,, Kinberg. Freg. Eugen. Resa. Zool., vol. ii, p. 7, Tab. iii, f. 7.
,, „ Danielssen. Norske vid. Selsk., 4de Bd., 2 Hft., Throndhjem, p. 114.
Aphrodita hystrix, Danielssen. Nyt. Mag. Nat., vol. xi, p. 49.
Lætmatonice filicomis, Malmgren. Nord. Hafs-Ann., p. 53.
„ Kinbergi, Baird. Proc. Linn. Soc., vol. viii, p. 180, 1865.
• „ „ De Quatrefages. Annelés, p. 199.
,, filicomis, McIntosh. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. xxv, p. 407.
» „ Sars. Bid. Christ. Fauna, p.,1.
,, Kinbergi, Ehlers. Ann. ‘ Porcup./ op. cit., p. 31, Taf. ii, f. 1, 2.
,, filicomis, Tauber. Ann. Danic., p. 79.
,, ,, McIntosh. ‘ Challenger 3 Rept., p. 39.
„ Kinbergi, Ehlers. Annel. U. S. S. 1 Blake/ p. 45, pi. vii, f. 6 ; pi. viii, f. 1—5.
„ „ Flor. Buchanan. Proc. Roy. Dubl. Soc., vol. viii (n. s.), ii, p. 170.
,, filicomis, Roule. Camp. d. ‘ Caudan ’ (Ann. Univ. d. Lyon), p. 442.
Habitat^ T h is species was first dredged in British seas by Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys off
the Hebrides in 1866, and often subsequently in various grounds off Shetland in depths
ranging from 75 to 100 fathoms, and chiefly on muddy sand. The same persevering
explorer found it off the west coast of Ireland (Valencia Island). I t extends into the'
Atlantic on Holtenia-ground or stones and coral, and even .to the depth of 1950 fathoms
(‘ Kni°ht Erran t ’), and is found on the shores of America (Verrill) and Canada
(Whiteaves). Northward it is met with in the Faroe Channel, while Grube gives from
Bohuslan along the Norwegian coast to Finmark. A few examples were dredged along
with Eermime on the oyster-ground off St. Peter Port, Guernsey, but it is absent along
the eastern shores from the Pentland Frith to the south coast.
Head.—The head (Plate XXVII, fig. 2) is somewhat rounded, the median separated
from the lateral region by two curved longitudinal grooves. The tentacle arises between
and rather behind the ocular peduncles-above the oonical basal segment, and is a
long, slender process gently tapering towards the tip, then slightly enlarging, forming a
constriction, and lastly a bulbous swelling as shown in the figures. In none of the
examples, however, did the tentacle reach the length of the great palpi, as Kinberg says,
nor could Baird’s description as “ short and conical ” apply. Its length, probably from
injury varies, but the longest are far short of the palpi, so that Kinberg’s were either
recently reproduced or varied in this respect. I t agrees in form with a dorsal cirrus.
The somewhat globular ocular peduncles occur on each side of the former, and m the
preparations are devoid of pigment. The long palpi spring from each side of the facial
tubercle in front, and have a smooth basal articulation, from which they gently taper till
near the extremity, .when a somewhat elongated dilatation occurs, after which the tip
tapers to a fine point. The whole organ beyond the basal articulation is setose with
— sharp papillae, which are finer on the distal region (Plate XXXVII, fig. 2). The.
slight enlargement below the tip is not evident in every example, probably from injury,
but it seems to be present in the most perfect. ,
The facial tubercle has numerous long, mammillate papillæ, thus differing much
from Aphrodita anleata, (Plate XXXVI, fig. 24). ■
The body is somewhat flattened, elongate ovoid, about equally tapered at both ends,
thouo-h from the contraction of tte parts and the condition of the feet the posterior end
often has a slightly broader .aspect. The dorsum is covered with a greyish ^It, and the
sides are flanked by the proportionally large and iridescent brownish bristles. These do
not overlap the dorsum as in other species, only a few of the shorter bristles spreading
slightly over the outer edge of the felt,1 which is usually coated with sand, and is ^ s ||
flexible as to take wrinkles from the edges of the scales. The dorsal felt is formed of a
moderate number of very fine hairs tapering to an attenuate point, and connected
together by a fibrillar gelatinous basis, which has sand-grains, diatoms, and other algæ,
mud, and foreign partioles of various kinds, e.g. sponge-spicules and anchors of
Synaptæ, in it. So far as observed the fine hairs do not terminate in hooked points as m
A . aculedta; they spring from the inner edge of the dorsal division of the foot. The
felt is friable, thicker, however, in the larger and older specimens, and more easily torn
and gelatinous in the smaller. The delicate dorsal cuticle under the felt is smooth, and
the body-wall of this region is much thinner than in Eermione, The long bronzed
spines extend posteriorly somewhat beyond the line of the feet, terminate nearly m a
transverse line, with the body, and give a -truncated outline to the region m contrast
1 Grube thought only mucus was present.