Tropical reef corals have been studied extensively in the last hundred years from the geological, ecological and, more recently, from the behavioural and physiological points of view (e.g. Darwin, 1896; Vaughan & Wells, 1943; Wells, 1959; Jones & Endean, 1973, 1976; Horridge, 1957; Shelton, 1975 a, b; Anderson, 1976 a, b; Shelton & McFarlane, 1976 a, b; McFarlane, 1978). By contrast, little attention has been paid to the deep, cold water corals such as Lophelia pertusa (L.) although they are in many ways just as spectacular in appearance and secrete massive calcareous skeletons. Zibrowius (1976) gives some data on the occurrence of Lophelia and its nomenclature while Wilson (1979 a, b) describes its distribution in the north-east Atlantic and its development in ‘patches’ on Rockall Bank. This paper, however, provides the first descriptions of the behaviour and co-ordination of Lophelia and the electrical conduction mechanisms underlying their control. The results are compared with those from similar experiments upon tropical species. They give insights into colony growth and co-ordination and into possible primitive behavioural control mechanisms.

The genus Turrisphaera Manton, Sutherland & Oates was described on the basis of material from West Greenland, Resolute Bay and South Alaska (Manton, Sutherland & Oates, 1976). In addition to these localities the genus has later been recorded from New Zealand (Moestrup, 1979) and Denmark (Thomsen, unpublished results). The diagnostic characteristics of the genus are the tower-shaped coccoliths and the small hexagonal crystallites. The two species described, the generic type T. borealis Manton, Sutherland & Oates and T. arctica Manton, Sutherland & Oates (Manton et al. 1976), were distinguished by the mucilage covering of T. arctica, and by a certain difference in the elaboration of the distal part of the coccoliths. Furthermore, in T. arctica the flagellar pole coccoliths were longer than the coccoliths elsewhere on the cell (all coccoliths appear equal in T. borealis), and the crystallites somewhat smaller than those of T. borealis.

The Parastenocaridae constitute a family of minute vermiform copepods, principally occurring in subterranean waters, including the subsurface waters of marine beaches. The two species of Parastenocaris referred to in this note were collected in Britain for the first time in 1966, during a survey of the harpacticoid fauna of some beaches on the Isle of Anglesey, North Wales (Geddes, 1972). Numerous females and males of both species were obtained from sand at the source of a spring emerging (at high water mark) on to the beach at Rhosneigr (O.S. Grid Ref. SH 315730).

The previously known distribution of these two Parastenocaris species has been summarized by Enckell (1969), whose paper should be consulted for full references and distribution maps. Briefly, P. phyllura Kiefer has been recorded from fresh water in the central and northern parts of middle Europe, and from brackish-water beaches bordering the Baltic and the North Sea coast of continental Europe, while P. vicesima Klie has been recorded from marine and brackish-water beaches around the Baltic and adjacent parts of the North Sea.

It has been concluded from studies of the elemental composition of the jaws of four Glycera species that a high concentration of copper is a structural feature of the glycerid jaw (Gibbs & Bryan, 1980). In Glycera gigantea Quatrefages, for example, the whole jaw when dried contains about 1–5% of copper, whilst zinc, calcium and magnesium, in roughly equal amounts, account for a further 1%. Copper is mainly confined to the distal half of the jaw and a concentration of 13% is present in the extreme tip; the other metals are more evenly distributed. Of non-metals, chlorine is concentrated in the distal tip along with the copper but sulphur is fairly evenly distributed and probably accounts for several percent of the dry weight.

In view of these findings, it was decided to investigate the Family Goniadidae, a group of worms that are closely related to the Glyceridae (and often included in that family) but which are readily separated by the different structure of the jaw apparatus and also of the parapodia (see Hartman, 1950). In goniadids the jaw apparatus consists of a pair of larger toothed jaws (macrognaths) plus dorsal and ventral arcs of smaller, H- and Y-shaped jaws (micrognaths), the whole forming a circle around the tip of the proboscis. The present observations were made on Goniada maculata Oersted, the only goniadid species present in the Plymouth area, and a total of four specimens, all about 5 cm in length, from different areas (Salcombe, Rame Grounds and Cawsand Bay: see Marine Biological Association, 1957) were examined.