Each rhopalium is a centre round which, as already stated, nervous tissue is concentrated.
To it belong (a) superficial grooves or deeper slits situated on the integument near the tip of the head, (b) nerve lobes in immediate connexion with the nervous tissue of the brain, and (c) ciliated ducts penetrating into the latter and communicating with the former.
These posterior brain-lobes, which in all Heteronemertines are in direct continuity of tissue with the upper pair of principal lobes, cease to have this intimate connexion in the Metanemertini; and, although still constituted of (I) a ciliated duct, opening out externally, (2) nervous tissue surrounding it, and (3) histological elements distinctly different from the nervous, and most probably directly derived from the oesophageal outgrowths, they are nevertheless here no longer constantly situated behind the upper brain-lobes and directly connected with them, but are found sometimes behind, sometimes beside and sometimes before the brain-lobes.
Accordingly, obvious lymphatic and nervous tissue were not included in the definition of SBO.
In the polyp the nervous tissue is always in the form of a scattered plexus, never concentrated to form a definite nervous system as in the medusa.
