GEPHYREA  , the name used for several

groups of worm-like animals with certain resemblances but of doubtful affinity . In the article " Annelida " in the 9th edition of this Encyclopaedia, W . C . McIntosh followed the accepted view in associating in this group the Echiuridae, Sipunculidae and Priapulidae . E . Ray Lankester, in the preface to the English translation of C . Gegenbaur's Comparative Anatomy (1878), added the Phoronidae to these forms . Afterwards the same author (article " Zoology," Ency . Brit., 9th ed.) recognized that the Phoronidae had other affinities, and placed the other " gephyreans " in association with the Polyzoa as the two classes of a phylum Podaxonia . In the present state of knowledge the old group Gephyrea is broken up into Echiuroidea (q.v.) or Gephyreaarmata, which are certainly Annelids; the Sipunculoidea (q.v.) or Gephyrea achaeta, an independent group, certainly coelomate, but of doubtful affinity; the Priapuloidea (q.v.), equally of doubtful affinity; and the Phoronidea (q.v.), which are almost certainly Hemichordata .