In a specimen from Godfiaven Harbour (Disco Island) the body was dotted with
rounded or ovoid whitish structures beneath the skin. They consisted of a mass of well-
defined granules, generally of a somewhat ovoid shape and a double outline.
. The parasitic crustacean, Sellius bilobus, occurs on the dorsum under the soales in
northern forms, and seems to be a large parasite for so small an annelid.
Pine specimens are procured in the tubes of Amphitrite figulus (Dalyell) under large
. stones near low-water mark of spring tides at St. Andrews. They occupy the anterior end of
the tube. All the examples were large, but the alimentary canal of those examined showed
no reoognisable food. The species probably finds in this and other tubes a safe refuge and
sufficient food. I t is, moreover, phosphorescent, irritation oausing a very pale greenish
or yellowish light to illuminate the scales. The phosphorescence jsjless vivid than in
Harmothoe imbricata and Polynoe scolopendrina. As a rule, Gattyana occupies a position
close to the mouth of the long tube of the Amphitrite beneath large stones, so that it is
well protected from marauders, even supposing they were attracted by its light. In the
same way its opportunities for alluring animals are curtailed, so that the remarks formerly
made in this connection still hold.1
To sum up, the British species differs in the.softer and much smoother scales, the
horny papillae being microscopic, and in the shorter, smooth tips of the ventral bristles,
which tips are likewise more attenuate in the Arctic forms. The innermost bristles of
the dorsal series appear also to be stouter and shorter in the Arctic forms.
Pallas (1776) was somewhat in doubt about this species, which had been sent him in
a rather softened condition by Gronovius from the northern s§Bs, and thought it might be
an older form of his Aphrodtia lepidota, though the structure of the feet differed. Both
description and figures are imperfect, and in fig. 6, Plate VIII, the foot is inverted,.but
Malmgren is right in identifying it with this species. The general pallor struck Pallas.
He mentions the “ scabrous ” condition of the posterior margin of the scales, and the
elongated yellowish dorsal bristles. The description given by Fabricius (1780) is quite
recognisable, and the dull greenish colour dorsally, the pale ventral surface, with the
hispid scales, are characteristic. Savigny (1820) added nothing id; the remarks of
Fabricius.
Johnston (1839), both in this paper and in the subsequent remarks in the 1 Catalogue,’
gives only .Montagu’s description. (Ersted’s figures (1843), rather than his description,
show that this was the species to which he referred in both publications. He also
gives its habitat as in the deeps of Greenland., Sars (1861), in his account- of the
Norwegian Polynoidas, gave descriptions of both a Pobynoe seabra, Fabr., and P. scabrimada,
n. s.; but Malmgren has rightly decided that these refer to the same species, considerable
variation occurring between the Arctic and the more southern examples. De Quatrefages
(1865) seems to have had no personal acquaintance with G. cirnosa, but mentions that
Linnaeus gave twenty pairs of scales to his form, and that it requires re-investigation.
This species was procured at a depth of 23.0 metres on mud during the Austrian
North Polar Expedition. Mobius states that it occurs in Greenland in 4—12 fathoms.
In the account of the annelids of Nova Zembla, Thfiel (1879) says that forms 45 mm. in
length come from the Kara Sea. Verrill (1879) includes it in his list from Cape Cod '1'
1 ‘ Ann. Nat. Hist.,5 4th ser., ix, p. 1, January, 1872.
to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Finally, Malaquin (1890) describes a variety found in the
tubes of Ghsetopterus at Boulogne.
Genus X.—Eunoa, Malmgren, 1865.
Lateral tentacles arising under the median—below and slightly internal to the peaks
of the head. Palpi with six rows of short cilia ; eyes large, visible from the dorsum. Three
intestinal cseca directed forward into the peripharyngeal space, the ventral long and
narrow, with two or more sacculations at its outer border inferiorly. The other two are
clavate and short. Elytra, fifteen pairs, completely covering the dorsum, and occurring on
the first foot, third, fourth, sixth, eighth, and so on to the twenty-second, twenty-fifth,
twenty-eighth, and thirty-first. Dorsal bristles pointed at the tip (which is bare), then
minutely spinulose in rows; ventral bristles somewhat longer, and resembling those of
Harmothoe, with a smooth tip, which has a hook and transverse rows of spikes.
External aperture of the segmental organ indicated by blackish pigment; no papilla.
Note.—This genus approaches Harmothoe, but the peaks of the head in the latter are
close to the median tentacle, whereas an interval exists in Eunoa. The eyes in
Harmothoe are smaller and less visible, the anterior pair being under the point of the
peak, whereas the anterior pair of Eunoa are situated some distance backwards, and are
lateral in position—not ventral. The bristles of the first foot’ in Eunoa are very distinct.
The remarkable Eunoa hispanica,l procured by the ‘ Porcupine ’ in 1870 on the Channel
slope, diverges from the other known forms by the great size of the eyes (with their
corneal lens), which exceed by far those of any other example of the family, by the great
length and smoothness of the palpi, and the great length of the ventral cirri and the
foot. The dorsal cirri probably have no enlargement below the tip, if we may judge from
a single lateral tentacle. E. hispanica is scarcely within the British area, but it is
worthy of note in this connection, and may yet be found near the coasts.
1. Eunoa nodosa, M. Sars, 1860.
- Specific Characters.—Body broad, flattened, slightly narrowed in front, but much
more gradually and distinctly posteriorly; bristled segments, 86; head about as broad
as long, with a deep notch in front, from which the peaks are clearly marked off on each
side; eyes large, two anterior to the nuchal fold, and two just in front of the lateral
projection of the head, and thus considerably behind the peaks; tentacle ciliated, slightly
dilated below the slender tip, longer than the palpi—in preservation; lateral tentacles
short, of similar shape; palpi subulate, with six rows of minute papillaa; tentacular
cirri smaller than the tentacle, but of similar structure; scales, 15 pairs, completely
covering the dorsum, with the exception of the first pair, elongate reniform and somewhat
thick, external margin densely ciliated, exposed surface rather thickly covered with
1 ‘ Trans. Zool. Soc./ ix, p. 396.