382 SIR C. ELIOT ON XCDIHRAXCHS [\k'C. 1, 



some of wliich are grooved outside and thus appear double. The 

 branchias are eight in number, tripinnate, and very much 

 retracted. The i-hachis is very stout and strong. 



27. SciiERODOKIS MINOR, Sp. U. 



One specimen from Chuaka. 



The Uving animal is described as superficially resembling 

 Platydoris papillata, difl'ering only in that the dorsal surface is 

 covered with i-idges which foi'm a raised reticulate pattern. The 

 colour was a uniform greyish brown, wdth a few patches 

 resembling adherent sand. The undeiside of the mantle was 

 warm grey with minute bi'own spots, the foot dirty orange. The 

 gill-pocket did not close completely when the branchiie w^ere 

 reti'acted. 



The alcoholic specimen is 2"7 centimetres long, 1'6 broad, and 

 1*1 high. The texture is rough and leatheiy, with the peculiar 

 feeling common in Platydoris. All the dorsal surface, including 

 the reticulations, is covered with minute tubercles. There is a 

 rather indistinct median keel, from each side of which extends 

 a somewhat irregular reticulate pattern. The rhinophoi'e-openings 

 are slightly raised and very slightly crenulate. The branchial 

 pocket 'is also slightly laised, of irregular shape, but not 

 crenulate, ridged vertically, and nearly but not quite closed. The 

 branchiae are eight, the two posterior shorter than the rest ; 

 the others are tall, thin, and sparse, so that in the alcoholic 

 specimen they appear simply pinnate, though they are really bl- 

 and sometimes tripinnate. The foot is lather broad ; the front 

 notched and the upjjer lamina apparently attached to the head, at 

 the side of wdiich are the conical oral tentacles. The snout is 

 proti-uded. There ai'e scattei'ed minute rods in the labial cuticle, 

 but they are not combined into plates. The radula consists of 

 33 row^s of yellow, regular hamate teeth, which do not diminish 

 much in size, either at the rhachis or at the end of the rows : 

 there are about 45 on the complete rows on each side of the 

 rhachis. No genital ai'mature was discernible. 



This specimen beais a strong general i-esemblance to Sclerodoris 

 tuherculata, and may perhaps be a yovmg individual of the same 

 .species. The radula is, howe\er, not quite the same, there are no 

 pits on the back, and the reticulate pattern is more distinct than 

 in the larger animal. It is possible that as the animal becomes 

 older the tubercles and pits may develop at the expense of the 

 pattern. 



28. SCLERODORJS RUBRA, sp. n. 



One specimen from the reef off the East Coast of Zanzibar. 



The living animal bears a most remarkable resemblance to a 

 veimilion sponge which is common at Zanzibar. It was not, 

 however, found on the sponge, but alone among Zostera near the 

 shore, and not in anyway concealed. It was picked up under the 

 impression that it was a species of sponge. The colour was red, 

 with some very natnial-looking sandv patches. The texture was 

 [30] 



