Sidney Frederic Harmer

“ PHORONIDEA, a zoological order, containing a single genus Phoronis, which is known to be of practically world-wide distribution, while there are many records of its larva, Actinotrocha, from localities where the adult has not been found. Phoronis is often gregarious, the tubes which it secretes being sometimes intertwined in an inextricable mass. ”

“ Most of the praetentacular region and the larval tentacles separate off, being then taken into the alimentary canal, where they are digested. The relations of the surfaces after the metamorphosis are clearly very different from those which obtained in the larva. The dorsal surface of the adult is the one between the mouth and the anus, while the median ventral line is the one which corresponds with the convexity of the alimentary canal. This view of the surfaces is, however, disputed by De Selys-Longchamps, who regards the aboral extremity of the adult as the posterior end. ”

“ The mouth leads into the oesophagus, which extends straight down the body nearly to the aboral end or “ampulla,” where it dilates into a stomach, from which the ascending limb of the U-shaped alimentary canal passes directly to the anus. The coelomic body-cavity is divided by a transverse septum (fig. 3, 5) which lies near the bases of the tentacles. The praeseptal or lophophoral coelom is continued into each of the tentacles and into the epistome. ”