42 



SAGARTIADJE. 



Tentacles. 



TENTACLE 



OF 

 8. MINI ATA 



(front). 



Pellucid pale-brown, or yellowish, indistinctly annulated with 

 dusky. The frout face of each (except the outer row) is 

 marked with two longitudinal dusky lines, parallel with 

 the sides, and meeting at the summit : these are some- 

 times interrupted by a pale band crossing the middle of 

 the tentacle. Below them, at the tentacle-foot, is a large 

 space of white, which is crossed by two bars of black ; 

 the upper one thick and very constant, the lower slender, 

 and sometimes thinned away to a mere shade in the middle. 

 Groups of tentacles often occur of a more or less opaque 

 white, but barred like the others, with which they form 

 alternate clusters. Those of the outer row consist each of 

 a pellucid sheath investing a core of scarlet or brilliant 

 orange, resembling in appearance the central gland iu the 

 papilla of an Eolis. This effect seems to depend on the pig- 

 ment being spread over the interior surface of the wall 

 of the tentacle, which is unusually thick and colourless. 

 Mouth. Orange-red. 



Size. 



Specimens attain a height of two inches 

 width of disk. 



with an equal 



Locality. 



The south and west coasts of England, from Deal to Arran. 

 and deep water. 



Rock-pools 



Varieties. 



a. Ornata. To the state above described, which may be considered as 

 the normal colouring, I appropriate this name, which was applied by my 

 friend Dr. T. Strethill Wright, to the species, which he described, 

 believing it to be new. (Plate ii. fig. 4.)* 



/3. Venustoides. Disk rich orange. Tentacles opaque yellowish-white or 

 pure white, marked, however, with the two characteristic black bars ; the 

 outer row showing traces, more or less conspicuous, of the orange lining. 

 This variety, from Ilfracombe and Torquay, has much prima-facie re- 

 semblance to 8. renusta ; but the specific marks of the tentacles, the strong 

 cremation of the mouth, and the well-defined and concentrically striate 

 radii are good signs of distinction. (Plate ii. fig. 3.) 



* Sly friend Mr. F. H. West has received a specimen from the vicinity 

 of Boulogne, with the disk more variegated than is usual with our specimens, 

 and which had this peculiarity, that one-half of the disk was flushed with a 

 dslicate rose-pink, and the opposite half with an equally lovely shade 

 of green. 



