CA B YOPH YLLIA CEA , A NTH1 D^B. 



THE SANDY CREEPLET. 



Zoanthus Couchii. 



Plate IX. Figs. 9, 10 ; X. Fig. 5. 



Specific Character. Basal band extending variously ; polypes invested 

 with a sandy coating ; tentacles in two rows. 



Zoanthus Couchii. Johnston, Brit. Zooph. Ed. 2, i. 202 ; pi. xxxv. fig. 9. 



Couch, Corn. Faun. iii. 73 ; pi. xv. fig. 3. Holds- 

 worth, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858 ; pi. x. figs. 3 — 7. 



Dysidea (?) papillosa. Johnston, Brit. Sponges, 190, fig. IS; pi. xvi. 



figs. 6, 7. 



Sidisia Barleei. J. E. Gray, Ann. N. H. Ser. 3, ii. 489 ; Proc. Zool. 



Soc. 1858 ; pi. x. fig. 8. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 



Form. 



Basal band. Narrow, irregularly creeping, soft, elastic, fleshy to the 

 feel, very sensitive ; invested with sand, like the column. 



Column. Cylindrical, rising to about three or four times its diameter ; 

 smooth, transparent. Margin cut into twelve or fourteen (generally the 

 latter number) large fleshy triangular teeth, which are connected by a thin 

 web of transparent membrane, the inner layer of which is composed of 

 transverse fibres, the outer is granular and cutaneous. In a state of semi- 

 contraction, these teeth form strongly-marked converging ridges on the 

 flat summit of the column. 



Invest matt. Fine sand, evidently not a secretion, but extraneous, imbedded 

 in the epidermis, — the fragments (in Torquay specimens) being of different 

 colours, some being of white limestone, others of red sandstone. When 

 the column is much distended, the grains of sand become considerably 

 separated, and we can distinctly see through the transparent and smooth 

 integuments into the visceral cavity. Thus the sand forms manifestly 

 only a single layer. Only very minute grains are used, and there is very 

 little difference in their size. 



Disk. Generally fiat or slightly concave, but protrusile in a conical 

 form. Radii apparently distinct, but only because the upper edges of the 

 septa appear through the perfectly transparent disk. 



