EOLIS PAPILLOSA. 



in front and tapering to a fine point behind Colour various, brown, gray, or yellowish, 

 always more or less spotted and freckled with lilac, gray or brown, and opaque white. 

 Dorsal tentacles simple, short, conical, somewhat truncated, and very contractile, generally 

 brown with white or yellowish tips, sometimes very dark, and occasionally pink or orange 

 coloured. Oral tentacles short, about the same length or a little longer than the dorsal pair, 

 pale in colour, and set wide apart on the head, the outline of which in front is a little curved 

 and slightly notched in the centre. Between the two pairs of tentacles there is usually a 

 triangular yellowish white mark, formed by confluent spots of opaque matter ; the angles are 

 prolonged into lines, the basal passing into the oral tentacles, the apical, going backwards, 

 passes between the dorsal tentacles, and reaching the swelling indicating the region of the 

 heart, expands and forms there another triangular white spot having its base backwards ; 

 from the lateral angles of this spot the white is continued in broken lines round the sides of 

 the heart, and uniting behind it, forms a broadish line that passes some little way down the 

 centre of the back. From this arrangement of the white markings, the freckling produces a 

 dark spot over the centre of the heart. These markings are not always present, and are 

 sometimes entirely wanting : pale lines, however, bordered with dark, usually indicate their 

 position. The back is also blotched or thickly spotted with brown and white ; the dark spots 

 becoming thicker and more intense on the borders of the white markings. Bnmchiai very 

 numerous, conical, stout and flattened, having a curved leaf-like outline when contracted, but 

 capable of great extension when the animal is in action. Their colour is usually brown, from 

 a thick freckling of that colour over the surface, intermixed with white : when the white 

 predominates it gives the branchiae a grayish appearance. This freckling is occasionally lilac 

 or gray, and does not extend to the base and under surface. The tips are whitish. The 

 central gland is yellowish-brown and much lobated, but seldom distinctly visible outside, 

 except on the under side or towards the base. The extreme lateral papillae are often 

 pinkish or salmon-coloured. The papillae are set in from eighteen to twenty closely 

 imbricated rows of twelve to twenty-four each, sloping transversely across the sides, and 

 leaving the centre of the back bare in front, but nearly meeting behind. The front rows 

 extend very far forward at the sides of the head, nearly reaching to the bases of the oral 

 tentacles ; the papillae on this part are small. Foot transparent white, showing through 

 its surface the rose-coloured ovaries, rather broad, especially in front, where it is a little 

 convex in outline and deeply grooved, extending into short angles at the sides. It terminates 

 in a point not far behind the branchiae, but the animal has the power of occasionally 

 elongating and attenuating it to a considerable extent backwards. 



The heart beats seventy-two to seventy-six times in a minute. 



Eolis papillosa varies so much both in form and colour, that it has given rise to many 

 spurious species, especially in its young state, when the number of papillae is also fewer. It 

 will be necessary, therefore, to particularise some of the more prominent varieties. There 

 are two forms met with on the* Northumberland coast ; the one is dark brown and rather 

 broad, with the branchiae very numerous and stout; the other, which is usually grayish, is 

 more slender in its proportions, and has the branchiae and tentacles a little longer. A 

 yellowish variety is also occasionally brought in from deeper water, the young state of which is 

 our E. obtusalis. We also now consider our E. rosea to be the young state of a variety with 

 rose-coloured branchiae, having once taken a full-grown individual of that colour; this 



