Fam. 1, Plate 14. 



DORIS SPARSA, Alder and Hancock. 



D. depressa : pallio lutescenti-albo, maculis paucis castaneis sparso, tuberculis remotis rotundatis : 

 tentaculis subconicis, albis, brunneo lituratis, raarginibus foraminum 3-4 tubereulatis : branchiis 9, 

 parvis, pinnatis, anum baud propinque cingentibus. 



Doris sparsa, Aid. and Hanc. in Ann. Nat. Hist, v, 18, p. 293. 



Hab. On Cellepora pumicosa from the fishing boats, Cullercoats, A. H. 



Body a quarter of an inch long, ovate, much depressed, and nearly equally rounded at 

 both ends. Cloak extending very little beyond the foot, of an obscure pale yellow, with a 

 few distant reddish-brown freckles or spots, and covered with smallish, obtuse, flattened, 

 spiculose tubercles, set rather apart, and of unequal sizes, becoming smaller towards the 

 margin. The cloak is stiffened and crowded with spicula, arranged transversely on the back, 

 and diagonally at the sides : the margin beneath has a minutely scaled or reticulated 

 appearance, probably caused by the ends of the spicula appearing through. Dorsal tentacles 

 slightly conical, with eight or nine broad distant laminae ; whitish, or nearly colourless, with 

 a few blotches of olive brown. They are without sheaths, but the margins of the cavities are 

 furnished with three or four large tubercular points, and a small, smooth, whitish area 

 extends into an obtuse point behind them. Branchial plumes nine, very small, simply 

 pinnate, pointed, colourless ; arranged in an incomplete circle, round the vent, leaving a 

 small tuberculated space within. Head with a broad, laterally expanded veil, forming a 

 semicircle parallel to the margin of the cloak. Mouth circular, with puckered lips. Foot 

 ovate, truncated, and slightly sinuated in front, nearly as broad as the cloak, and occasionally 

 extending a little beyond it posteriorly. It is pellucid and nearly colourless, with the liver 

 appearing through the centre, rather narrower than usual, of a brownish salmon colour. 



This species, though closely resembling D. depressa and D. pusilla, is readily dis- 

 tinguished from either by the character of the tubercles. From the former it also differs in 

 the greater size of the branchiae, and from the latter in their colour and form, as well as in the 

 colour of the tentacles. 



A specimen of this new Doris was obtained from the fishermen's lines at Cullercoats, in 

 December, 1845. It was adhering to Cellepora pumicosa incrusting the base of a Flustra. 



It lived with us more than a month, but did not show much activity, and seldom floated 

 on the surface of the water. 



Figs. 1, 2, 3. Doris sparsa, different views. 



4, 5. Side and front views of a tentacle. 



6. A branchial plume. 



7. A portion of the cloak showing the tubercles. 



