Coloration of Marine Animals. 227 
lustre or the flesh-tint by no means resembles their sur- 
roundings, whilst other dwellers in sand, viz. Phyllodoce 
maculata and Anc itis rosea, are finely coloured. Forms fre- 
quenting the fissures of rocks or tunnels in calcareous alge 
are equally varied in tint, from the sombre grey of T'rophonia 
plumosa, the deep green of Hulalia virddis, the straw-coloured 
body and red branchiw of Morphysa, to Lysidice with its 
madder-brown anterior end and white collar. Those having 
finely coloured plumes anteriorly, like the Sabellidze, occupy 
tubes, and in few instances are their plumes in harmony with 
their surroundings. One instance, however, is given by 
Prof. Semper * of agreement between an allied form (AM/ya- 
cola, one of the Eriographidide) at Port Mahon and a coral 
(Cladocera). Both the polyps and the funnel of the annelid 
were of the same chocolate-brown colour, and thus at first 
sight protective resemblance might have been diagnosed ; but 
the annelid also occurred in a sponge of a totally different 
colour and in clefts of rocks where no tint resembled it. When 
Semper tapped the coral the annelids retracted their plumes 
at once, but the corals remained expanded. ‘There was really 
no protective resemblance. Dr. Kisig mentions an Hunice 
parasitic in a sponge of a yellow colour, the annelid being 
yellow with orange spots, and he considers this an instance of 
protective coloration, though Beddard thinks the tint arises 
from feeding on the sponge. As, however, these annelids 
generally construct a tough parchment-like tube in sponges, 
the example is dubious. ‘lwo annelids, Huphrosyne and 
Spinthes, are also partial to yellow sponges, on which they 
feed and they may be held to be protectively tinted. Some 
Polynoide with mud-covered scales approach the hue of the 
muddy inner surface of shells dredged trom deep water, or the 
muddy inferior surface of stones between tide-marks. The 
dorsum under thescales and the free parts of the body posteriorly 
in others are coloured conspicuously with brown bars, so that 
the case may fairly be claimed as one of protective adaptation. 
Malmgrenia, commensalistic on purple urchins, also agrees 
with its surroundings, being tinted of a deep purple, and the 
polynoid in the interior of Huplectella is more or less trans- 
lucent. On the other hand, Neredlepas, commensalistic with 
the hermit-crab in the great whelk, 1s conspicuously tinted. 
Pelagic annelids, again, are not always colourless, even the 
Alciopide having finely coloured eyes. The pelagic stages 
of Autolytus so common in various seas are often coloured 
both green and pink. Little change in the tint of the green 
* Fide Beddard. 
