clavate cilia. Colour pale brownish inclining to buff, with a red patch on the head
and a purplish hue over the proboscis. Under surface pinkish with a broad streak of
carmine.
S ynonyms.
.1876. Harmothoe marphysae, McIntosh. Trans. Zool. Soc., ix, p. 384, pi. lxix, f. 11--14, and
pi. lxx, f. 7.
1890. ,, ,, Malaquin. Annel. Bouldn., 21.
Habitat.—In the galleries of Marphysa sanguinea in Guernsey, and from chinks in
the rocks, Polperro (British Museum).
Head (Plate XXVII, fig. 11) rather elongated from before backward, rounded in
front instead of having the usual peaks, and with the widest part behind the middle. Eyes
small; the larger anterior pair wider apart, and situated laterally in front of the middle
line at the edge of the red patch on the head. The small posterior pair lie in front of
the nuchal collar and behind the red patch. A slight median groove runs forward to
the base of the median tentacle, the Golumn of which is absent. The lateral tentacles are
inferior (i. e. below the rounded anterior border of the head), short, with filiform tips, and
have a few short clavate papillae. The palpi are short and stout, with delicately tapered
extremities. No papillae were visible, but they may be present in section. The tentacular
cirri are comparatively short and slender, with finely tapered points. On the surface
are a few clavate cilia.
Body somewhat elongate, with the feet greatly developed posteriorly. Bristle-bearing
segments thirty-two to thirty-three. The segments after the twenty-third (bristled)*,,
however, are in process of renewal. The markings on the dorsum are less distinct than
usual, as the feet are separated by deep clefts. The feet increase in bulk after the twelfth
bristled pair, becoming larger and longer, a feature which may be connected with reproduction.
An elevated line occupies the middle of the dorsum in the preparation, while
ventrally the median region has a depressed line at each side with a cushion-like ridge
between. The segmental eminence is well marked, and a distinct conical process
extends between the feet. The process is evident about the seventh foot, and continues
almost to the posterior end.
The colour is pale brownish inclining to buff, with a red patch (from the ganglia)
on the head, and a purplish hue just behind (due to the proboscis), while a faint median
streak occurs on the dorsum. The cirri are pale brownish, pellucid, the two caudal
styles being darkest. The under surface is pinkish, with a broad streak of carmine in
the centre.
The scales (Plate XXXII, fig. 13) appear to be thirteen or fourteen pairs (possibly
fifteen), covering the dorsum and easily separated, but the specimen is not in a condition
to give accuracy in this respect. In front they are rounded, then reniform, and even
somewhat quadrate posteriorly. They are rather thin, apparently smooth and pellucid,
the anterior only having a pale brownish patch on a whitish portion. Under the
microscope, however, a belt of small papillse (spines) occurs within the anterior bay of
the scale, in front of the scar. Other pale points which resemble these (by transmitted
light) are dotted over the lateral area, but they seem to be the end-organs in connection
with the numerous nerves.
Feet.-^The first foot has a strong spine and a bristle or two like the dorsal.
The second foot has a considerable number of short dorsal bristles, little tapered.
In the ventral division is a group of comparatively short, strong bristles, with short
spinous regions, and a somewhat elongated smooth portion at the tip which ends in a
probe-point. The length of the spinous region diminishes in the usual manner from
above downwards.
Gradually the feet assume the complete form, many of the ventral bristles, indeed,
in the third foot being bifid, but the dorsal division, instead of becoming more prominent
as in the majority of the Polynoidse, increases very little;
In the fully formed foot (Plate XXIX, fig. 16) the dorsal division is marked by a
long bluntly conical process bearing the spine, above which a short tuft of comparatively
few bristles projects from a small eminence. These bristles (Plate XXXIX, fig. 7, one
of the longer) are slightly curved, delicate, and translucent, with minute rows of spines.
The ventral division consists of a somewhat long and obliquely truncated foot, the spine
occurring at the upper angle in a pit between two fleshy lobes—a larger upper and a
smaller inferior. The bristles have moderately long shafts and short spinous regions.
The upper examples have more elongated spinous regions and simple tips (Plate
XXXIX, fig. 8), while a distinct secondary process is observed in the succeeding forms
(Plate XXXIX, figs. 9 and 10, the latter being seen from the front). Toward the
ventral edge of the group the spinous regions become very short and the tip simple
(Plate XXXIX, fig. 11). In large examples from Polperro the dorsal edge of this division
of the foot is curiously wrinkled in the preparations. The spinous region of the ventral
bristles is often coated with parasitic growths. •
Posteriorly both dorsal and ventral bristles become more slender and elongate, the
tips of the ventral forming long hair-like processes.
The dorsal cirri are pale brownish and pellucid, the caudal styles being darker.
The cirri are simple tapering processes, with sparsely distributed clavate cilia, which are
longest towards the base of the filiform tip. The ventral cirrus is somewhat tumid at the
base, and has a very few comparatively long clavate cilia.
Reproduction.—The specimen procured in July at Guernsey carried nearly ripe ova.
Habits.—A single specimen occurred in each gallery of Marphysa sanguinea, and the
examples from Polperro, “ from the chinks of rocks,” may have had a similar relationship.
When placed in an open vessel beside Marphysa it clung to the body of the latter near
the head.
Baron de Saint-Joseph procured his Harmothoe picta,l an allied species, in the tube
of Lanice conchilega at Dinard, on the French coast. Another species (H. arenicolse) he
found clinging to a lobworm. I t is curious that this also was a ripe female. His
figures of the bristles are not so strictly drawn as is necessary for accurate diagnosis, but
the species closely approaches H. spinifera and H. ljungmani. It is, however, larger,
viz. 25 mm. long.
1 ‘ Ann. d. Sc. nat.’ (7), v, p. 172, 1888.