Priapuloidea

PRIAPULOIDEA, a small group of vermiform marine creatures; they have been usually placed in the neighbourhood of the Gephyrea, but their position is uncertain and it is doubtful if they are to be regarded as coelomate animals. They are cylindrical worm-like animals, with a median anterior mouth quite devoid of any armature or tentacles. The body is ringed, and often has circles of spines, which are continued into the slightly protrusible pharynx. The alimentary canal is straight, the anus terminal, though in Priapulus one or two hollow ventral diverticula of the body-wall stretch out behind it. The nervous system, composed of a ring and a ventral cord, retains its primitive connexion with the ectoderm. There are no specialized sense-organs or vascular or respiratory systems. There is a wide body-cavity, but as this has no connexion with the renal or reproductive organs it cannot be regarded as a coelom, but probably is a blood-space or haemocoel.

The Priapuloidea are dioecious, and their male and female organs, which are one with the excretory organs, consist of a pair of branching tufts, each of which opens to the exterior on one side of the anus. The tips of these tufts enclose a flamecell similar to those found in Platyhelminths, &c., and these probably function as excretory organs. As the animals become adult, diverticula arise on the tubes of these organs, which develop either spermatozoa or ova. These pass out through the ducts. Nothing is known of the development. There are three genera: (i.) Priapulus, with the species P. caudatus, Lam., of the Arctic and Antarctic and neighbouring cold seas, and P. bicaudatus, Dan., of the north Atlantic and Arctic seas; (ii.) Priapuloides australis, de Guerne, of the southern circumpolar waters; and (iii.) Halicryptus, with the species H. spinulosus, v. Sieb., of northern seas. They live in the mud, which they eat, in comparatively shallow waters up to 50 fathoms.

Authorities

- Apel, Zeitschr. wiss. Zool. (1885), vol xlii.; Scharff, Quart. Journ. Mic. Sci. (1885), vol. xxv.; Ehlers, Zeitschr. wiss. Zool. (1861), vol. xi.; Schauinsland, Zool. Anz. (1886), vol. ix.; De Guerne, Mission scientifique du Cap Horn (1891),(1891), vol vi.; Michaelsen, Jahrb. Hamburg-Aust. (1888), vol. vi. (A. E. S.) Priapus, in Greek mythology, son of Dionysus (or Adonis or Hermes) and Aphrodite (or Chione). He is unknown to Homer and Hesiod. The chief seat of his worship was the coast of the Hellespont, especially at Lampsacus, which claimed to be his birthplace. Thence his cult extended to Lydia, and by way of the islands of Lesbos and Thasos to the whole of Greece (especially Argolis), whence it made its way to Italy, together with that of Aphrodite. Priapus is the personification of the fruit fulness of nature. Sailors invoked him in distress and fishermen prayed to him for success. He gradually came to be regarded as the god of sensuality. His symbol was the phallus, an emblem of productivity and a protection against the evil eye. The first fruits of the gardens and fields, goats, milk and honey, and occasionally asses, were offered to him. He was sometimes represented as an old mail, with a long beard and large genitals, wearing a long Oriental robe and a turban or garland of vineleaves, with fruit and bunches of grapes in his lap. Amongst the Romans, rough wooden images, after the manner of the hermae, with phallus stained with vermilion, were set gardens. His image was placed on tombs, as symbolizing the doctrine of regeneration and a future life, and his name occurs on sepulchral inscriptions. In his hand he carried a bill-hook or club, while a reed on his head, shaking backwards and forwards in the wind, acted as a scarecrow.

Categories: PRI-PRO | Animals