. Cuvier's animal kingdom : arranged according to its organization. Animals. ABRANCHIA. 397 The Antilles possess a large one, which inhabits a. tube of the consistence of leather. The Phyllodoce maxillosa, Ranzani, named Polyodante by Reinieri, and Eumolpe maxima, Oken, appear to be nearly allied, having the same trunk and jaws, and neither genus having perhaps been described from perfect specimens. Many species of Annelides remain, which have been too imperfectly described to admit of their being characterized ; and the Myriane, and two or three other genera of M. Savigny, must remain to be e
. Cuvier's animal kingdom : arranged according to its organization. Animals. ABRANCHIA. 397 The Antilles possess a large one, which inhabits a. tube of the consistence of leather. The Phyllodoce maxillosa, Ranzani, named Polyodante by Reinieri, and Eumolpe maxima, Oken, appear to be nearly allied, having the same trunk and jaws, and neither genus having perhaps been described from perfect specimens. Many species of Annelides remain, which have been too imperfectly described to admit of their being characterized ; and the Myriane, and two or three other genera of M. Savigny, must remain to be examined anew. Finally, we place here a new and very singular genus, whicli I name Ch^topterus. Mouth with neither jaws nor trunk, but furnished above with a lip, to which three small tentacles are attached. A disk then follows with nine pairs of feet, after which is a pair of long silky bundles like two wings. The lamina-formed gills are attached more towards the upper surface than the lower, and range along the middle of the body. [Here also ought probably to be placed the genus Peripatus of Guilding, founded upon a West Indian species, which burrows in the sand, and which has much perplexed naturalists as to its relations. By Guilding it was considered as molluscous; by Mac Leay as forming the passage between the lulidce and the annulose annelidous worms; whilst Gray {Zool. Misc. p. 6) asserts that it is annelidous, and connects Nereis with Lumbricus.]. Fig. 205.—Peripatus lulifurmis. THE THIRD ORDER OF THE ANNELIDES,— ABRANCHIA,— Have no respiratory organ appearing externally, and seem to respire either, as in the Earthworms, over the whole surface of the skin, or, as in the Leeches, by internal cavities. Some of them have yet bristles to serve for locomotion, of which others are deprived, and they accordingly fall into two families. THE FIRST FAMILY OF THE ABRANCHIA,— The Abranchia Setigera,— Which are provided with silky bristles, comprise the Earthworms and Naid
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