The Conchologist 



Jl journal of /Iftalacologr?. 



Vol. II. JUNE 24th, 1S93. No. 6. 



"MIMICRY" OF LAMELLARIA PERSPICUA. 



By W. A. HERDMAN, D.Sc, F.R.S., &c, 



Professor of Natural History, University College, Liverpool. 



About twenty years ago Giard pointed out that the mollusc 

 Lamellaria perspicua may be found associated with various compound 

 Ascidians, and is then protectively coloured so as to form an 

 excellent example of what he at that time called direct defensive 

 mimicry. 



Lamellaria perspicua is not uncommon round the south end of 

 the Isle of Man, and is frequently found under the circumstances 

 described by Giard ; but I met lately with such a marked case on 

 the shore near the Biological Station at Port Erin, that it seems 

 worthy of being placed on record. The mollusc was on a colony of 

 Leptoclimim maculatum, in which it had eaten a large hole. It lay in 

 this cavity so as to be flush with the general surface ; and its dorsal 

 integument was not only whitish with small darker marks which 

 exactly reproduced the appearance of the I.eptoclinum surface with 

 the ascidiozooids scattered over it, but there were also two larger 

 elliptical clear marks which looked like the large common cloacal 



Conchologist, vol. ii., pt. b. 



