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AN ACCOUNT OF PRIAPULUS CAUDATUS LAM.,
A RARE ESSEX WORM.
By H. C. S. HALTON
[Read 23rd February, 1929.]
(With 1 Plate.)
IN a note in the last issue of the Essex Naturalist it was
stated that two specimens of the Gephyrean worm, Priapulus
caudatus, Lam., found by Mr. F. J. Lambert last July in the
mud on the New England Island shore of Shelford Creek,
constituted a new record for the county. It is necessary here to
correct that statement, for, in the Victoria History of the county,
Dr. Sorby, who spent twenty years studying the marine zoology
around the Essex coast, records that "it occurs in small numbers
at most stations along the coast in mudbanks left dry at low
water."
However, although this worm is common in both the Arctic
and Antarctic regions, it has been recorded, so far as is known,
from only three places in the British Isles, viz., the Outer
Hebrides, Scarborough and the Essex coast. The lack of records
for the British Isles is probably due to the creature's incon-
spicuousness and its solitary life in an uninviting and usually
uninvestigated habitat.
On September 23rd last I accompanied Mr. Lambert to the
Fowlness neighbourhood, and after several unproductive diggings
at various points along both shores of the creek, finally proceeded
to the scene of the previous find, where, during a three hours'
search, we obtained thirteen of these worms.
Shelford Creek, at the point where Priapulus was found, is
approximately forty yards across from bank to bank, and at low
tide the water is confined to a channel ten yards in width, leaving
a stretch of mud fifteen yards wide between the water edge
and the bank. The worms were found half way between the
bank and the channel and a few feet beyond the Enteromorpha
belt. It was impossible, even in fishermen's sea boots, to search
for Priapulus nearer to the channel, for, such was the consistency
of the ooze at this distance from the bank, that one sank to the
knees. To remain still for more than a minute was dangerous
and to keep moving—horizontally—was a difficult task.
The creatures were all within three inches of the surface,