DOLABELLA. 159 
Aplysia tongana Q. & G., Voy. de l’Astrol. Zool., ii, p. 305, pl. 28, 
figs. 6, 7 (1832).— Dolabella tongensis Gray, Figs. Moll. Anim., iv, 
p- 97 (1850).—D. tongana Maz. & Zucc., Boll. Soc. Nat. Napoli, 
ili, 1889, p. 50. 
D. cALIFORNICA Stearns. PI. 66, figs. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. 
Description of alcoholic specimens:—Length 12 to 14 cm. 
Oblong-ovate, broadly rounded behind, Aplysia-like in front. Bue- 
cal tentacles ear-like, short and folded about at the middle, not pro- 
duced toward the mouth; tentacles conic and slit; the very minute 
eyes in front of them and more separated. Mouth a vertical slit in 
a papillose disk. Swimming lobes arising at or behind the middle 
of the animal’s length, contiguous. Posterior subcircular area de- 
fined by a groove with smooth raised anterior edge, and enclosing a 
cord. Mantle having a large shell-foramen and a long posterior 
siphonal fold (fig. 14,8). Genital foramen under the back part of 
the gill (fig. 14, g. p.). 
Color (in alcohol) dark olive, or dull brown with more or less 
black maculation. In life it is said to be “a dark brown and the 
surface covered with warty papillee.” 
Shell solid, with a brown cuticle. Apex with a roughened re- 
flexed callus, continuing along the dorsal margins as a reflexed 
border over the cuticle. 
Mulege Bay, Gulf of California, in pools left by the tide (Fisher) ; 
West coast of Mexico (Jones). 
Dolabella californica StEARNS, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1878, 
p. 395, pl. 7, f. 1, 2 Ghell), Feb. 11, 1879; Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., 
Xvi, pp, 341, 342, 1892; xvii, 1894, p. 158 —Pixssry, Nautilus, ix, 
p. 73. 
In external appearance, this species seems nearest to D. ecaudata 
and tongana, but the posterior area is defined by a far less conspic- 
uous frill, which does not extend to the edges of the dorsal slit. 
Dolabella guayaquilensis, a species known by the shell only, is stated 
- tohave the margins “scarcely reflected, callus small, narrow, not 
continued upon the margins,” while in the present species the mar- 
gins are bounded by unusually broad reflexed callous bands. Traces 
of sparsely scattered wart-like papille are visible on some specimens, 
mainly posteriorly, but these are not very distinct in the alcoholic 
