MOLGTTLA INCONSPICUA. 59 



8. Molgula inconspicua Alder & Hancock. 

 (Plate XXVII, figs. 3-5 ; and fig. 45 in text.) 



Molgnla inconspicua ALDER & HANCOCK in Ann. Nat. Hist. 

 [(4) VI (1870), p. 366]. 



Body globular, rather firm, covered with sand and 

 [fragments of] shell ; unattached. Apertures approxi- 

 mate, tubular. Test tough, clothed with irregular 

 linear fibrils. Mantle slightly attached to the test, 

 thick and fleshy towards the upper part, thinner below, 

 the intestine showing through. Tentacular filaments 

 bipinnate. Branchial sac with six folds on each side, 

 the meshes very slightly convoluted or almost linear. 

 Oral lamina smooth. Intestinal canal laro-e, reaching- 



O O 



near to the top of the sac, twice looped. Liver dark 

 green. Reproductive organs forming a long, curved, 

 elliptical mass on each side, with the margins divided 

 into irregular lobules, that on the right side within 

 the lower intestinal loop. 



Diameter one-quarter to one-third of an inch. 



Hab.? 



CHANNEL ISLANDS. Guernsey; dredged (Jeffreys $ 

 Norman). 



First record. Alder & Hancock, 1870 ; coll. Jeffreys 

 & Norman [1865], 



We have seen only one specimen of this species ; it 

 is globular, or perhaps a little ovate with the lower 

 extremity wide and well rounded. The test is tough 

 and is readily divisible into two layers. 



The mantle (PI. XXVII, figs. 3 'and 4) is of a pale, 

 soiled greenish colour (the specimen was preserved in 

 spirit), and is much stouter than usual, particularly at 

 the upper part, where, in the region of the tubes, it is 

 quite thick and fleshy ; it is attached to the test though 

 not very firmly; the radiating muscles are not per- 

 ceptible externally, but are seen on the inside to be 



