19U4.] FROM EAST AFRICA AND ZANZIBAR. 403 



SP'HiERODORIS hMVlS, var. VAKIKGATA. 



[Bergh in Semper's Reisen, Heft xvii. p. 924, 1890.] 



One specimen from Mnemba on the East Coast of Zanzibar, 

 found in the act of layiug a ribbon of light violet-coloui'ed eggs. 

 The body of the living animal was described as firm and shiny, 

 dark brown in colour above, with greenish and sandy patches ; 

 the undeiside was a lighter shade of uniform bi'own. 



The alcoholic specimen is 31 mm. long, 20 broad, and 14 high. 

 The foot, which is nearly as large as the body, is 28 mm. ](mg and 

 15 broad. The colour is mottled-brown of darker and lighter 

 shades. There are also bands formed of minute black spots, not 

 very conspicuous, and arranged in an irregular pattei-n, particu- 

 larly in the neighbovirhood of the branchial opening. Though 

 the dorsal surface cannot be described as either tuberculate or 

 papillose, it is not, strictly speaking, smooth, but bears low irre- 

 gular excrescences wdiich resemble a marine growth. Also, there 

 are about 10 shallow pits (?g'andular) distiibuted at irregular 

 intervals round the mantle-edge. Like the bands, they are 

 inconspicuous, about 1 millimetre wide, with slightly raised edges 

 and a black centre. The edges of the rhinophore and branchial 

 pockets ai-e not much i-aised and entire. There are 14 small but 

 stout, simply pinnate gills, set in a circle which is slightly open 

 posteriorly. The head is joined to the upper larnina of the foot 

 at the sides, and there are no distinct tentacles, though two small 

 prominences by the mouth may represent these. There is a very 

 narrow but strong labial armature, composed of minute hooks. 

 The radula is rather narrow, with a wide naked rhachis. There are 

 about 70 rows, each containing about 25 teeth on either side of 

 the centre, but the teeth mostly point towards the rhachis, and 

 the whole arrangement is very iiregular so that the usual radula 

 formida hardly meets the case. The teeth present the form 

 characteristic of the genus, but the innermost are somewhat wider 

 than Bergh's figures of S. Icevis {I. c. pi. Ixxxviii.) and bear 7 or 8 

 denticles. The denticles on all the teeth are extremely delicate 

 and fine. There is no stomach apart from the hepatic mass. 

 The reproductive appai-atus is unarmed. 



This form is clearly a Spha^rodoris (as shown by the buccal parts, 

 head, and branchiae), and, equally clearly, neither S. punctata, 

 papillata, nor verrucosa. It undoubtedly comes very near to 

 /S. Icevis, of which 1 provisionally describe it as a variety, but it 

 varies somewhat from the type specimen described by Bergh both 

 in the pits, which he does not mention, and in the teeth, and 

 may prove to be a new species. 



I have also examined several individuals, apparently referable 

 to S. Icevis, captured by the Skeat Expedition at Pulau Bidang 

 near the Malay Peninsula, Their dentition is like that described 

 above, and they have a few (in one specimen only two) pits, but 

 the back is quite smooth and of an almost uniform bluish olive 

 colour. 



Proc. Zool, Soc— 1904, Vol. I. No. XXVII. 27 



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