364 APLYSIID^. 



The Sea-hares are mixed feeders, living chiefly on sea-weed, 

 but also devouring animal substances ; they inhabit the lamina- 

 rian zone, and oviposit amongst the weed in spring, at which 

 time they are frequently gregarious. — Forbes. They are per- 

 fectly harmless animals, and may be handled with impunity. 

 When molested they discharge a violet fluid from the edge of 

 the internal surface of the mantle, which does not injure the skin, 

 has but a faint smell, and changes to wine-red. 



" Wonderful tales used to be told of the more than poisonous 

 qualities of the Aplysia. Pliny, ^lian, and especially Aldro- 

 vandi, collected all these absurd notions. One was that if the 

 animal were touched, even with a walking-stick, the danger 

 would be not less than from the look of a basilisk ; another was that 

 it caused baldness ; and a third that pregnant women miscarried 

 at the sight of this horrid creature. Cuvier has satisfactorily 

 shown that Aplysia is quite harmless, and that it did not deserve 

 the bad character given to it by the ancients ; he says trul}^ that 

 fishermen have always had a fancy to attribute mischievous prop- 

 erties to those marine animals which are of no use as the food 

 of man. I would remark, however, by way of parenthesis, that 

 the Aplysia is not quite inoffensive, as an}'^ one maj^ be convinced 

 by handling it ; the smell is insufferably nauseous. This and its 

 slabby appearance are certainly enough to take away the appetite 

 of any civilized being. But Mr. Lesson states that one kind is 

 eaten raw and esteemed a delicacy by the natives of the Societ3^ 

 or Friendly Isles. The Aplysise secrete occasionally a whitish 

 slime. Spawn-case gelatinous, of a pinkish hue, thread-like, and 

 irregularly convoluted ; ova white and very numerous, lying in 

 the middle. The embryonic shell is globular ; it becomes the 

 apex in after-growth, being persistent, as in Teredo." — Jeffreys, 

 Brit. Gonch. 



Phyllaplysia, Fischer, 



Distr. — 3 sp. Europe. P. ornata, Desh. (Ixxxix, 69). 



Body flat, neck short, foot broad, natatory lobes small. Shell 

 absent or horny (?). Teeth of radula tricuspid, blunt. Copulation 

 reciiprocal, as in Helix, not in multiple chains, as in true Aplysia. 



Aplysiella, Fischer. 

 Distr. — 2 sp. Europe. A. petallifera^ Rang (Ixxxix, 12). 

 Aplysia, with the natatory lobes rudimentary as in Dolabella, 

 the shell very thin. 



Dolabrifera, Grube. 

 Distr. — 4 sp. Indian Ocean, West America. D. Cuvieri, 

 Ads. (Ixxxix, '73). 



Shell trapezoidal ; side-lobes not used for swimming. 



