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The Atoll of Funafuti, Ellice group : its zoology, botany, ethnology and general structure based on collections made by Charles Hedley of the Australian Museum, Sydney, N.S.W.

Aspidosiphon steenstrupii, Diesing

Aspidosiphon steenstrupii, Diesing.

Aspidosiphon steenstrupii (Diesing), Selenka, Semper's Reisen. Arch. der Philippinen iv., Die Sipunculiden, p. 116, pl. i., figs. 12, 13; pl. xiii. figs. 190-192.

A single specimen is here doubtfully referred to this species. The body and proboscis are of a uniform pale brown colour, the anterior and posterior shields are darker, the latter is granular and radiately grooved, the former is slightly granular; an encircling series of about twenty small tubercles mark the line of union of the proboscis with the body.

The proboscis is clothed with a series of chitinous bodies of two kinds, those on the anterior half consist of flat curved bidentate hooks arranged in rings, each hook is about 0·05 mm. in height and 0·04 in width at the base. On the posterior half the chitinous bodies are scattered, they are elongate, three sided, slightly bent but not hooked at the summits, they are 0·04 mm. in height and 0·025 in width at the base. Numerous papillate skin glands occur between the rows of hooks, one to every four or five hooks.

The retractor muscles are 15 mm. in length, they are attached about 3 mm. from the posterior end of the body and are joined together at about 4 mm. from their point of attachment. The segmental organs are equal in length to the combined portion of the retractors, and are free from the body-wall for three fourths of their length. At the posterior third of the body there are twenty-five longitudinal muscle bands.

This form comes very near to A. speculator, Selenka, but the retractors are united much nearer the posterior end of the body, and the segmental organs are free for a greater distance than in Selenka's species.