THE DIADEM TIMPLET. 



203 



TENTACLE 



{front view). 



either tentacle or lip, and bounded by a very fine 

 white line on each side ; thus is produced a pat- 

 tern of fine radiatiug lines of white on red. Some- 

 times the lines are irregularly blotched and dilated, 

 with ragged edges. 



Tentacles. Pellucid, nearly colourless, crossed by 

 three dim sub-opaque white bars, of which the middle 

 one is most distinct ; near the base are two chocolate 

 bars, generally divided by a central longitudinal line 

 of pellucid white, giving the appearance of four dark 

 spots set in square. Sometimes one bar is nearly or 

 quite obliterated. 



Mouth. Lip whitish. Throat rich orange-scarlet ; 

 the furrows darker than the ridges. 



Size. 

 Diameter of column in button, one and a quarter inch ; height two inches 

 expanse of flower one inch. 



Locality. 



The south coast of Devon ; moderately deep water. 



Varieties. 



a. Patricia. The rich orange-scarlet condition just described. 



0. Plebeia. The column of a dirty light brown ; the markings of the 

 marginal coronet distinct, but duller. The usually red ground of the disk 

 replaced by deep brown, and the white lines by pellucid drab ; the whole 

 interrupted by four or five broad irregular radial bands of pure white. 

 The bars of the tentacles obsolete. 



This fine species first occurred to myself when dredging 

 off Berry Head, in about twenty fathoms, in August, 

 1858. Three or four specimens came up in about the same 

 number of hauls. In every case the animal was adherent 

 to the shell of the living Tuvritella terebra, a mollusk 

 which is so abundant there that the dredge comes up half- 

 filled with it. The base of the Bunodes clasps the long 

 turreted shell, nearly enveloping it when adult, only the 

 apex and the mouth of the shell being exposed. 



Other specimens have occurred since in similar circum- 

 stances; and Mr. Densham, a collector of Torquay, informs 

 me that in October he obtained a group of eight or ten 

 adhering to a mass of oysters. 



