Onuphis Oerst. has a head like the preceding, from which it differs in having pectinated gills and two nuchal cirri like Eunice. In making its tube it employs small pebbles, bits of shell, and even echinid spines, which it glues together with mucus, so that it bears a general resemblance to its surroundings. O. conchylega Sars, has a flattened, scabbard-like tube, which can be carried about by its owner. Atlantic.
Lumbriconereis has a more or less conical prostomium, without any tentacles, but with large palps: segments without gills. L. fragilis Müll. is reddish or brownish, with a beautiful iridescence; it is cylindrical, very narrow, and some 5 or 6 inches long; L. tricolor Jnstn. is much larger.
Ophryotrocha (Fig. 170) is a small form often occurring in aquaria; it is chiefly remarkable for the possession of segmentally-arranged girdles of cilia—a permanent larval feature. Lysidice ninetta Aud. and Edw. belongs here.
Fam. 10. Glyceridae.—Elongated worms with numerous segments. The prostomium, though narrow, is long, conical, annulated, and carries at its apex four very small tentacles; at its base a pair of palps. Special retractile gills are present. The armed pharynx is very long, and when protruded appears wider than the animal. The members of this family are without any system of blood-vessels, but the coelomic corpuscles are coloured red. Glycera has four jaws, the parapodia are all alike (Fig. 136, C). G. capitata Oerst. is 2 or 3 inches in length, is yellowish in colour, with a dark-red median line. It may be found burrowing in sand. The setigerous lobes of each foot are coalesced to form one large lobe with pointed apex. The dorsal cirrus is a small wart above the base of the foot. Atlantic and Mediterranean. A second species, which is much larger and flesh-coloured, also occurs.
Fig. 171.—Glycera meckelii Aud. and Edw. with pharynx everted, × 1. (Règne Animal.)
Goniada is distinguished from the preceding by the fact that the parapodia suddenly change in size and character at about one-third the length of the body. The pharynx has numerous paragnaths. G. maculata Oerst. occurs off our coasts.
Fam. 11. Sphaerodoridae.—The dorsal and ventral cirri of each segment are spherical. The chaetae are usually jointed, and there is an aciculum to each parapodium. Ephesia Rthke. (E. gracilis R. = Sphaerodorum peripatus Jnstn.) is exceptional in having unjointed chaetae. North Sea, Arctic Ocean, and the Channel. The family, which is much modified, is allied in some respects to the Syllidae.
Fam. 12. Ariciidae.—These worms burrow in sand between tide-marks. The body consists of many short segments, and is nearly cylindrical. The prostomium is more or less pointed; the chaetae are all capillary; in the first few segments they project laterally but soon come to lie dorsally, and are carried by slight conical papillae (supported by acicula), which are longer in the middle of the body. Most of the segments carry filiform "gills," representing the dorsal cirri (Fig. 137, B).
Scoloplos armiger Müll. is extremely common on our coast. It is about an inch long, yellowish, with red gills, commencing about the twelfth segment. Each of the lobes of the parapodium possesses an aciculum, and the chaetae are bent in a peculiar way. The everted buccal region has the form of a six- or eight-rayed star. The spawn of this species may be found on the shore in spring as brown, pear-shaped, jelly-like masses, each with a long stalk, by which the mass is fixed to the sand. In the jelly are the eggs, which may be watched passing through the earlier stages of development. Atlantic on both shores, even off Spitzbergen, and Nova Zembla. Another representative is Theodisca mamillata Clap., which occurs amongst the roots of Laminaria.