NudihrancMate MoUusca in the China Sea. 93 



singularly enough, the Chromodoris which I had already found 

 at the Pescadores ; the next I recognized as an old acquaint- 

 ance of Haitan Straits, and I began to think there was nothing 

 new — in Labuan at least ; but I- ultimately discovered a new 

 species of Doris^ beautifully marked with longitudinal lines 

 alternately nearly black and white, the tentacles and branchi^ 

 being also mottled to match this colouring, the whole mantle 

 and foot having a border of orange. This species was at that 

 season of the year (August) pretty common ; and I found it 

 at Labuan, and also on both the small adjacent islands before 

 mentioned. 



The gentleman who had described to me the appearance of 

 certain species which he averred having seen in his shell- 

 collecting rambles, kindly accompanied me to the spot ; and 

 we both searched in every direction, but without success, and 

 I was obliged to leave them to my successors to discover and 

 bring to light. Probably it was not the right season. Upon 

 one of the small islands I met with a large mottled-grey and 

 tuberculated Dorid, 4 inches long, with capacious tentacles and 

 expansive gill-tufts {wot uvLYiko, Doi-is tubercidata) ^ which exhi- 

 bited a singular habit. Several specimens which I took home 

 for examination, after a short time performed a spontaneous 

 amputation of the mantle close round the body, as cleanly as 

 if done with a pair of scissors, after which they soon decayed. 

 At first I was inclined to attribute this circumstance to a large 

 Pyrida,) which was in the same vessel ; but having removed 

 the other specimens into a separate vessel of clean water until 

 I should have time to attend to them, I found the next day 

 that they also had amputated their mantles. It appeared in- 

 deed to Idc a suicidal act, produced probably by the fouling of 

 the water, and analogous perhaps to the breaking-up of Coma- 

 hdce and the self-evisceration of Holotlmrioi. 



At Singapore I found a variety of Doridopsis rubra, a fine 

 rose-coloured species which occurs among the Ceylon Nudi- 

 branchs of Kelaart, and also among the Madras Nudibranchs 

 described by Messrs. Alder and Hancock, and is perhaps syno- 

 nymous with a Cuvierian species, Doris solea. It is not a 

 little curious and interesting to find such small and delicate 

 animals existing in places separated by so many hundreds 

 (and, in some instances, thousands) of miles of trackless ocean ; 

 and there seems scarcely any limit to the geographical range 

 of these creatures, which evidently require abundant food, 

 whose locomotive powers are very limited, and whose soft 

 bodies are ill calculated to resist much rough treatment by the 

 waves. Probably their dispersion has mainly been effected 

 by their multitudinous ova ; and yet in many cases their 



Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. Ser. 4. VoJ.'i. 8 



