dorsum. Dorsal bristles strong, with well-marked spinous rows and a smooth portion at
the tip. Ventral bristles with simple hooked tips, superiorly and inferiorly; rest with a
well-marked secondary process. Segmental papilla long. Papillse of proboscis f.
Pre-gastric cmca long and slender.
1. Harmothoe imbrioata, L.t 1767. Plate XXVI, fig. 3.
Specific Characters.—Body elongate-ovate, narrowing more distinctly posteriorly
than anteriorly. Head somewhat ovate, with the median furrow in front, and terminating
on each side in a blunt peak. The posterior pair of eyes are of moderate size, dorsal in
position, and are alone visible from above. The anterior pair lie under the peaks in
front, are somewhat larger, and look outward and forward. A trace of a cuticular lens
is occasionally seen in these. Tentacle of moderate length, arising from an enlarged dark-
coloured base (ceratophore) ; the proximal part of the column (ceratostyle) brownish with
a dark belt below the pale enlarged region, to which the filiform tip is attached. A few
rather short clavate cilia occur on its surface, the filiform tip being smooth. The lateral
tentacles are beneath the former, and are about half their length, with a very slight
swelling below the filiform tip. They have proportionally more numerous clavate cilia
than the median tentacle. The tentacular and dorsal cirri agree with the latter in
outline, and have a considerable number of clavate cilia. Palpi elongated and tapering,
with rows of somewhat truncate clavate papillse. Ventral cirrus of moderate length,
with a few short clavate cilia. Segmental (nephridial) papilla comparatively long.
Scales fifteen pairs, and, with the exception of the rounded first pair, ovate-reniform
or obliquely ovate. Though smooth to the naked eye, they are minutely spinous
under the microscope, and the outer margin has somewhat short cilia. Only in large
specimens is there a row of brownish subglobular papillae within the posterior- margin.
Dorsal bristles strong, with rather distinct spinous rows, and a well-marked smooth
region at the tip. Ventral bristles with an elongated spinous region superiorly, a short
spinous region inferiorly, and a simple smooth tip with a hook. All the rest have a well-
marked secondary process beneath the hook.
Habitat. Distributed between tide-marks and the adjacent region everywhere round
the shores of Britain, from Shetland to the southern coast of England, but it is comparatively
rare in the Channel Islands (Guernsey), where its place is occupied by
Lagisca floccosa. It extends also to the depth of 75 to 96 fathoms (‘Porcupine’
Expedition, 1869) and to 125 fathoms off the west coast of Ireland. It ranges to
Spitzbergen, Greenland, Iceland and Scandinavia, to the Adriatic and Mediterranean,
as well as to other European shores, and is also found in America (Verrill) from
Cape Cod to the St. Lawrence. According to Marenzeller it extends to Japan, and
Grube records it from northern and eastern Siberia, and from Sitcha and the Sea of
Okhotsk, and various other parts of the Arctic Sea.
I t is common in the stomach of cod and haddock (E. M.). I t has also been found
in the tube of Terebella nebulosa, Bressay Sound, and beside Polycirrus in an old shell
in the same region.
Length.—On each side of 1£ inches, and reaching 2.
S yno nyms.
1766. Aph/rodita lepidota, Pallas. Miscell. Zool., p. 94, Tab. 7, fig. 15,* Tab. 8, f. 3, 2.
„ „ imbricata, L. Syst. Nat., twelfth edit., vol. i, p. 1084.
1768. „ violacea, Ström. Kongel. Norsk. Vidensk. Selskabs.'Skrifter, Deel iv, p. 366.
1776. ,, cirrata, 0. F. Miiller. Prod. Zool. Dan., p. 218, n. 2644.
,, ,, violacea, idem. Ibid., p. 218, n. 2645.
,, „ lepidota, idem. Ibid., p. 218, n. 2643.
„ Die flache Aphrodite, Martini. Allgem. Geschichte der Natur, iii, p. 132.
,, Aph/rodita imbricata (Ziegelrücken Aphrodite), Martini. Ibid., iii, p. 151.
1780. ,, violacea, Fabricius, O. Fauna Grönl., p. 308, n. 290, Tab. 1, fig. 7.
1792. „ ,, Brugniöre. Encycl. Method., vers, i, p. 89.
1800. Die flache Aphrodite, O. F. Müller. Naturges. einiger Wurm-Arten, p. 180, Tab. 14, figs. 1—5.
1820. Polynoe cirrata, Savigny. Syst, des Ann., 26.
1827. ,, violacea, Bory de St. Vincent. Reproduced in Tableau Ency. Method., p. 135, pi.
lxi, f. 30—33.
1828. Evmolpe cirrata, De Blainville. Diet. Sc. Nat., vol. lvii, p. 459.
1830. Aph/rodita cirrata, Bose. Hist, des Vers., 169, 2nd edit., 183.
1834. Polynoe cirrata, Audouin and Edwards. Annel., p. 86.
1840. „ Johnston. Ann. Nat. Hist., ii, p. 434, Tab. 22, f. 2.
1843. Lepidonotus cirratus, (Ersted. Grönl., Ann. Dors., p. 14, f. 1, 5, 6, 11, 14, 15.
„ ,, ,, idem. Annel. Dan. Consp., p. 13, fig. 43.
„ Polynoe cirrata, Rathke. Fauna Norweg., 150.
1851. ,, ,, Maitland. Fauna Belg., 214.
1853. Aph/rodita varians, Dalyell. Pow. Creat., ii, 168, pi. xxiv, f. 11, 12.
1854. Polynoe cirrata, Thompson. Fauna, Ireland, 173.
1860. „ ' „ Sars. Vid. Selsk. Forhandl., 1860 (sep. copy, 5).
1865. ,, „ De Quatrefages. Ann., i, p. 232.
,, Lepidonotus cirrosus, idem. Ibid., i, p. 261. (?)
„ Polynoe cirratus, Johnston. Cat. Brit. Mus., 114, pi. viii, fig. 2.
,, Harmothoe imbricata, Malmgren. Nord. Hafs.-Annul., p. 66, Tab. ix, fig. 8.
1867. ,, ,, idem. Ann. Polychset. Spets., p. 154 (sep. copy, p. 9).
1871. ,, ,, Ehlers, Sitzb. phys.-med. Soc. Erlangen, Heft 3, p. 77.
1873. ,, „ idem. Op. cit., Heft 5, p. 7.
,, ,, Sars. Nyt. Mag. f. Naturvid., 19, p. 203.
,, ,, „ idem. Bid. Christ. Fauna, iii, p. 3.
,, Polynoe cirrata, Möbius. Jahresb. Com., 1871, p. 111.
„ „ .,, Kupffer. Ibid., p. 150.
1874. „ ,, Möbius. Die Zweite deutsche Nordpolarfahrt, 1869, p. 253.
.. ,, Harmothoe imbricata, Malm. Göteborgs Kongl. Vet. och Vitt. Samhalles Hand]., Haftet
14, p. 74.
1875. ,, ,, . Ehlers. Annel. ‘ Porcupine,’ 1869, op. cit., p. 32.
,, „ ,, McIntosh. Invert, and Fishes, St. A,, p. 116.
,, Polynoe cirrata, Möbius. Jahresb. Com., 1872, p. 166.
1876. Ha/rmothoe imbricata, McIntosh. Trans. Z. S., ix, p. 398.
1877. ,, ,, Hansen. Nyt. Mag. f. Naturvid., 24.
1878. „ ,, ; Lenz. Jahresb. Com., 1874-6, Anhang., p. 12.
1879. ,, ,, Marenzeller. Südjapan. Annel. Denkschr. d. Kaiserl. Akad. Wiss. Wien,
xli, p. 17, Taf. ii, f. 1.
,, ,, ,, Tauber. Ann. Danic., 80.