ALCIPPE. Hancock. Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., vol. 4, 1849, Pl. 8, 9.
Fem.—Capitulum without valves, with the orifice spinose: peduncle with the basal end added to during growth; its rostral surface depressed and covered by a horny disc: capitulum and peduncle imbedded in a cavity excavated in the shells of molluscs.
Labrum very large, with a row of long hairs on each side: palpi rudimentary: mandible one-toothed: second, third, and fourth cirri absent: fifth and sixth cirri with the posterior ramus represented by a button-like body: caudal appendages four jointed, muscular: anus none.
Males,—several, adhering to the upper end of the horny disc of the female: capitulum naked, transparent, elongated, with a small orifice at the end: peduncle lobed, with the lower end extending far beyond the pupal antennæ: eye, testis, and vesicula seminalis single; probosciformed penis very long: mouth, stomach, thorax, abdomen, and cirri none.
Hab.—North-eastern shores of England, fifteen to twenty fathoms, imbedded in dead shells of Fusus antiquus and Buccinum undatum (A. Hancock); south-eastern shores, off the Eddystone, Lighthouse (C. S. Bate).