112 Mr. Montagu's Description of several Marine Animals 



IJOLOTHURIA PENTACTES, Vai". 



Tab. VII. Tig. 4. 



Cylindric, white, covered with a mottled film or epidermis that 

 seems to obscure the real colour : along the body are five rows 

 of papillae disposed in double series, that at times give it a sub- 

 pentangular form ; but shape is a vague character in many 

 of these animals, as in this some parts are often inflated, while 

 others are contracted. The anterior end, for an inch or more, is 

 of a purplish- brown, and furnished with eight large, and two 

 very small contiguous, elegantly ramous tentacuia of a purple 

 and yellow colour; the tips of all the smaller ramifications are of 

 the latter. When the animal was alive it was observable that 

 one of the least arms, or tentacuia, was always covering the 

 mouth, and for that purpose were alternately in motion : the 

 space within the arms is purple; the lips, or margin of the 

 aperture white : the posterior end is furnished with a small pen- 

 tangular opening of a red colour, through which the water was 

 observed to be taken in, as well as ejected. 



Length, when fully extended, six inches; diameter half an 

 inch. 



It is probably an inhabitant of the deep, as it was found on 

 the sands at Milton, after a storm. When put into a glass of 

 sea water it showed no signs of life for a considerable time, but 

 was contracted, so that the tentacuia, and all the anterior end 

 coloured with purple, were drawn in and obscured. 



This species of Uototfiuria bears more affinity to II. Pentactes 

 than to any other; yet after a careful examination of the various 

 figures given by several authors, some doubts remain on the 

 subject. 



Lucernaria 



