THE BELL LUCERNARIA. 213 



that the hold Tvas very readily let go, even in health ; 

 the little animal travels quickly, causing itself to 

 adhere to any substance, either by the contact of the 

 tentacles, of the marginal warts, or of the foot-disk. 



From what O. Fabricius says of the food of this 

 species, — " vescitur omsci's,^^ — I presented to one a 

 little Gammarus locusta ; the Lucernaria strove to 

 take in the prey with its mobile mouth, and succeeded 

 in partially embracing it, holding it for several hours, 

 after which it dropped it. The shrimp was early 

 rendered powerless. 



In colour these delicate creatures vary much. The 

 expanded membrane is usually colourless ; but the 

 mouth, the ovaries, the edges of the disk, and the 

 foot display colour. This may be grass -green, olive, 

 drab, whitish, or various shades of rose-pink. The 

 warts are commonly whitish, and the tentacle-globules 

 pale orange yellow. In some specimens, opaque- 

 white specks were scattered over the disk, which in 

 others were absolutely wanting. The nature of these 

 I cannot conjecture. 



In February of the present year (1854) Mr. Thomp- 

 son of Weymouth was so kind as to send me up 

 several specimens of what I take to be a distinct 

 species, L. campanulata. It is less elegant, more 

 cup or bell-shaped, with scarcely any perceptible 

 stalk. These specimens were about an inch in height, 

 more dense in texture, of a dark dull green hue. 



My friend has favoured me with the following 

 notice of the habits of this species. " The LucernaricB 

 I find as follows : — at extreme low water, beds of 

 sea-grass {Zostera manna) are exposed ; on some of 



