36 ASCIDIADiE. 



Zetland, (1837,) J. Goodsir and E. F. "Parasitic on one of 

 the larger Ascidice ; dredged in Strangford Lough," W. Thomp- 

 son, Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. v. (1840) p. 91. 



MOLGULA, E. Forbes. 

 (Diminutive of MoXyoj, a bag of skin.) 



Body more or less globular, attached or free, with a mem- 

 branous tunic, usually invested with extraneous matter ; orifices 

 on very contractile and naked tubes ; the branchial 6-lobed, the 

 anal- 4-lobed. 



1. M. ocuLATA, E. Forbes. 



Plate D, fig. 6. 



Body globose, adhering by base ; test closely encrusted with sand, 

 shells, and gravel, except a smooth, oblong, reniform, regularly 

 bounded, depressed space, within which the very short but rather 

 wide orifices project. This space is very tender, translucent, 

 bluish or purplish, mottled with orange ; the orifices are short 

 tubes, similarly coloured, the one G-lobed, the other 4-lobed; 

 lobes acute. Two inches and a half across. 



This curious species, the orifices of which seem like dark eyes 

 within a spectacle-formed frame, was dredged off Plymouth, ad- 

 hering to a scallop, in twenty-five fathoms, (1846,) R. M'An- 

 drew and E. F. 



2. M. TUBULOSA, Ratlike, (Sp.) 



Ascidia tubulosa, Zool. Dan. t. ] 30, f. 3. 

 Plate C, fig. 5. 



Body perfectly globular, not adhering, but buried in sand or 

 mud. Test hyaline, encrusted with fine sand, smooth, except the 

 short conical approximated orifices, which are naked, bluish, and 

 beautifully reticulated ; their edges are bordered with yellowish 

 tubercles, (G + 4.) The branchial opening is the largest. 



This curious species occurs abundantly in muddy lochs and 

 bays on the Avest coast of Scotland. When it comes up in the 

 dredge, it resembles a little ball of sand; when the sand is rubbed 

 away, it seems like a little transparent bullet, in the interior of 

 which the viscera are seen winding. The description in the Zoolo- 

 gia Dauica does not agree with our species so well as the figure. 



