largest examples was procured by the “ Porcupine ” in 1869 twenty-five miles off shore
(Ireland) ; off Fermain Bay, Guernsey ; Plymouth (Spence Bate and B. Rowe, Crawshay);
Kingstown and various stations on the West Coast of Ireland (Southern). The species
ranges to deep water off the various shores of Britain, e. g. off the Hebrides in its tube
inside a valve of Pecten opercularis (J.G. J.); Firth of Forth (Cunningham and Ramage).
Abroad it is found at Behring’s Sea (Marenzeller) ; Spitzbergen (Fauvel, Meyer) ;
Christiana Fjord, Norway (Malmgren and Norman) ; Denmark and Sweden (Grube and
Malmgren) ; North Sea, Mediterranean (Claparède, Grube, Marenzeller) ; shores of
France (De St. Joseph) ; shores of Cantabria (Rioja) ; Red Sea (Boutan) ; Greenland
(Michaelsen) ; Franz-Joseph Land (Augener) ; White Sea (Ssolowiew) ; Antarctic Sea
(Ehlers) ; N.E. America (Moore).
The cephalic collar forms a small rim dorsally and behind it is a row of distinct eye-
spots. The anterior border makes a spout-shaped aperture by forming an arch over
the mouth, and which, seen from the dorsum, narrows a little in front, whilst in lateral
view it slopes from above downward and backward. The tentacles are numerous and
have the median groove so characteristic of such organs. Ventrally the dorsal collar
terminates in spirit-preparations in a narrow edge at each side, the central region being
occupied by an independent bilobed and often spout-like flap, making a kind of
lower lip.
The body. (Plate CXII, fig. 5) is enlarged in front, though in the small specimens
this is slightly marked, and tapers to a moderately slender tail, at the tip of which is the
anus surrounded by blunt papillae. The segments vary from forty to fifty-five. The dorsal
surface is rounded, the ventral has thirteen or more shields in front, and the median
line thereafter is marked by a deep groove. Of a pale brown throughout, sparsely
speckled with white spots, except on the ventral scutes. Tentacles pale reddish.
The branchiae are two on each side, and vary much according to the age of the
specimen, young forms having only short stalks without divisions, whereas adults have
the branchiae well developed and more or less dichotomously divided, with short
terminal branches. The anterior gill is the larger and is in the adult densely arbuscular.
All intermediate forms occur between the one stage and the other. The best developed
branchiae occur in those from deep water, e. g. 80 fathoms off North Unst, Shetland,
and from the “ Porcupine,” the first pair having a comparatively long stalk before
splitting into the terminal tuft. The disproportion between this and the second pair is
marked, the latter being a short process with only a few divisions. In the blood are
hæmatin-corpuscles which emit pseudopodia (Cuénot, De St. Joseph).
On each side are seventeen bristle-bundles (Plate CXXVI, figs. 2, 2 a and 2 a') consisting
of translucent bristles with shafts which slightly diminish towards the upper end, where
the narrow wings commence and continue on the somewhat long and finely tapered tips for
a considerable distance, disappearing, however, on the hair-like extremity. The tufts
differ from those, e. g., of Amphitfite gracilis, in being single, no shorter series occurring
as in other types. The first bristle-bundle is found behind the second branchia and it has
no special appendage, but the two following have on the dorsal side of the setigerous
process, and continuous with it, a lanceolate appendage like the branchia of Aricia. The
pinnules characteristic of the posterior region commence about the twenty-first segment.
The hooks (Plate CXXVI, figs. 2 b to 2 b'") present a single tooth above the main
fang, though in some traces of a second appear in lateral view. The base is somewhat
small in proportion to the crown and neck, and its lower edge is evenly convex. The
process on the anterior edge curves upward so as to make a narrow gulf below the main
fang, and the edge beneath it is concave. The posterior or dorsal edge has only a slight
indentation before joining the base. A series of striations pass from the crown down the
posterior part of the neck. The basal region is deep and comparatively short in contrast
with Polymnia nebulosa—another form possessing only a single tooth above the main
fang. The inferior outline is convex with a slightly sinuous tendency at each end-
The posterior hooks in many (Plate CXXVI, fig. 2 c') show two distinct teeth above the
main fang. In an example from Christiana Fjord (Canon Norman) the posterior
indentation above the base is deeper, but the hook is otherwise similar to that of the
British form.
Habits.—Those inhabiting the tubes in the tissue of Alcyonidium (E. M. and R. M.),
attached to stones at extreme low water, had their tentacles thrust out into the
surrounding water. The anterior end with the tentacles protruded from the apertures
and thus facilitated extraction. Many had their body-cavities filled with ova (May 20th).
De St. Joseph found that it left its tube and swam in a serpentine manner through the
water.
The tubes often occur amongst algae and small mussels, and are formed of secretion
and minute grains of sand or fragments of shells, the masses sometimes being further
encrusted by sponges. In the deep water forms the tube is composed mainly of fragments
of shells, an occasional small stone and fragments of Balani and Ditrypa, cemented by a
tough secretion. Occasionally it is placed inside a broken valve of Pecten, and thus one
area of the circumference is sufficiently protected. Mr. Arnold Watson found one from
Llanfairfechan in April wove a cobweb, and he suggests this may be the Terebella textrkc
of Dalyell.
Reproduction.—A small female from the East Rocks, St. Andrews, with only one or
two divisions of the single pair of branchiae, had numerous ova (Plate CXXIX, fig. 9) in
the coelom on June 21st. De St. Joseph gives their colour as orange. There are three
pairs of segmental organs, the first in the third segment, the second at the sixth, and the
third at the seventh (De St. Joseph). In the males as figured and described by Malmgren
in Nicolea arctica (Nicolea zostericola, (Ersted, according to Levinsen, Wir£n and
Marenzeller) there is a small cirrus above the third and fourth setigerous segments, but
such is only the papilla of the segmental organs, which is better developed in the male
than in the female.
The species of the genus Nicolea+have long been a source of dubiety to zoologists,
and remained so up to date. This was due as much to variation as to misapprehension,
for branchige as well as bristles and hooks varied, and young forms differed considerably
from the adult. Indeed its representatives were placed under different genera such as
Axionice and Scioiie, and much confusion has resulted. Marenzeller showed that Scione
and Axionice fell under the same genus, and that Nicolea parvula, N. zostericola and
N. vestita were synonyms of the original Nicolea venustula of Montagu. It is doubtful if
even Nicolea lobata, Malmgren, and Nicolea flexuosa, Malmgren, are not in need