Fam. 3, Plate 41. 



Mgs. 1 to 5. 

 ALDERIA MODESTA, LovUn. 



A. ovata sub-convexa, lutescens, fusco variegata; capite parvo; branchiis elliptico-oblongis, postice 

 crescentibus ; in seriebus 6-7 digestis ; pede amplo, lateribus reflexis. 



Stiliger modestus, Loven, in Ofv. Kongl. Vetens. Akad. Forh., 1844, p. 49. 

 Alderia amphibia, Allman, in Brit. Assoc. Rep. for 1844. 

 modesta, Idem., in Ann. Nat. Hist., v. 17, p. 5. 

 Loven, Index Moll. Scand., p. 8. 

 S. Bate, Notes Faun. Swans., p. 6, pi. 1, f. 1, 2. 

 For. and Hani., Brit. Moll., v. 3, p. 611, pi. c.c.c, f. 1. 

 Hab. In salt marshes and shallow pools of salt or brackish water, on a muddy bottom. Near 

 Skibbereen, county Cork, Professor Allman. Loughor Marsh, near Swansea, M. Moggridge, Esq. and 

 C. Spence Bate, Esq. 



Body about half an inch long, ovate, rather convex, pale yellow, varying from greenish 

 yellow to yellowish fawn-colour, and often densely spotted with dark brownish-gray. Head 

 very small, slightly notched in front, and produced at the sides into obtuse lobes. Branchial 

 ovate oblong, obtusely pointed, yellowish, frequently blotched with dark gray, especially in 

 front, and spotted with opaque white : the tips white. The papillae are disposed in six or 

 seven diagonal rows on the sides of the back, commencing at some distance from the head, and 

 leaving all the front of the back bare, but approaching more nearly behind. They increase in 

 size towards the central and posterior rows, the last extending beyond the tail. Foot very 

 large, rounded before and behind ; produced and turned upwards at the sides : it is of a deep 

 yellow in the centre becoming paler towards the edges. 



In the autumn of 1842, Professor Allman met with this curious little mollusk in great 

 numbers in a salt marsh near Skibbereen, which was never, except at the highest spring tides, 

 ' flooded by the sea. The following interesting account of it was published by him in the 

 Annals of Natural History.* "The day was bright and warm when I met with this curious 

 little animal. Many had crept quite out of the water and were crawling over the moist fronds 

 of Unteromorpha intestinalis, and seemed to delight in exposing their slimy bodies to the 

 influence of the warm autumnal sun. Others swarmed on the mud in the little shallow pools 

 of the marsh, when their ova were abundantly deposited in the usual gelatinous masses, 



* Vol. xvii, p. 1. 



