250 SIR CHARLES ELIOT OX NUDIBRANCHS [Mar. 1 7, 



[From the Proceedikgs of the Zoological Society of London, 



1903, vol. i.] 



[Published August 0, 1903.] 



On some Nudibrunclis from East Africa and Zanzibar. 

 Part II. 1 By Sir (\ Eliot, K.C.M.G., H.M. Commis- 

 sioner for the East Africa Protectorate, F.Z.S. 



Oeratophyllidia africana, gen. et sp. nov. 



One specimen from near Wasin, E. Africa, in 9 fathoms. 



The living animal was described by Mr. Crossland, who dredged 

 it, as of a light greenish-yellow colour on the upper surface, but 

 with the foot, branchise, and under side of mantle, white. The 

 back was very hard and smooth, but its most remai'kable character- 

 istic was the presence of a number of papilla?, consisting of roiuid 

 or pear-shaped bodies set on stalks. The stalks as well as the 

 base and tip of these globes were white, but the middle part was 

 black, owing to a dense aggregation of black spots, which, however, 

 can be seen to be separate under a lens. The globes were quite 

 soft and the stalks flexible ; they shook when the animal was 

 moved, but were not observed to execute any spontaneous move- 

 ments. The mantle-edge was wavy. 



The alcoholic specimen is of a uniform pale lemon-yellow, the 

 black bands of the globes being, however, preserved. The breadth 

 across the middle of the back is 1*9 centim. Unfortunately the 

 animal is contracted almost into a circle, but apparently the 

 length, when stretched out, must have been about 2-2 centim. 

 The consistency of the body is like hai-d wax, and fi-agments of 

 the mantle, which is ample, could easily be detached with the 

 foijceps. The whole dorsal surface is a mass of closely packed 

 spicules. It bears about a hundred of the stalked globes. They 

 ai' 3 of veiy varying size ; many are quite minute, but the largest 

 is about 3 millim. high including the stalk, and about 2 millim. 

 ac I'oss the ball, which is quite soft and can easily be pressed flat. 

 Tniey ai^e distributed over the whole of the back irregularly, and 

 not in any pattern, but are perhaps thickest round the mantle- 

 edge, including the space in front of the rhinophores. Both the 



1 For Part I. see P. Z. S. 1903, vol. ii. p. 63. 



[2] 



