EUMENIS MARMORATA.
EUMENIS MARMORATA, Alder and Hancock.
E. olivacea, brunneo alboque marmorata: velo parvo, tuberculato: tentaculis clavatis, intra vaginas
arctas, simplices, retractilibus: brancbiis parvis, papillosis, ad marginem repandum dorsi utrinque
dispositis.
Eumenis marmorata, Aid. and Hanc. in Ann. Nat. Hist. v. 16, p. 311.
Hab. Deep water, Torbay, J. A.
Body rather more than half an inch long, nearly linear, quadrilateral, tapering to an
obtuse point behind, olive or yellowish brown, streaked and spotted with dark chocolate
brown and white. Head rather squared in front, covered by a slight veil, with a few
tubercular points most conspicuous at the sides. Tentacles placed rather forward on the
back, ovato-clavate, closely laminated on the upper part, with about twenty plates; the
apex produced and truncated. They are of a yellowish fawn-colour; the lower part is plain,
and inclosed in rather tight sheaths, with plain margins, extending about one third the
height of the tentacles. The sides of the body are produced into a pallial expansion, which
undulates into three or four lobes, the margin set with irregular papillose branchice of a
fawn-colour with pale edges; a few separate papillae extend down to the tail. Down the
centre of the back is a line, double in front, of dark chocolate brown or nearly black streaks
and spots, commencing in a horseshoe-formed mark behind the tentacles, and reaching to
the tail: this line is bordered with streaks of opake white on each side, sending off lateral
branches. The sides of the back are olive or yellowish brown, with dark brown and white
spots. On the sides of the body below the branchiae several interrupted streaks of dark
chocolate brown and opake white extend from the head to the tail; below these the sides
are transparent white. Foot nearly linear, white; the anterior portion produced into long
tentacular processes at the sides, grooved at the margin, and deeply notched in the centre.
A single specimen of this rare and curious nudibranch was dredged near Berry Head,
in Torbay. It was a little injured, and lived only a short time after being brought on shore,
so that we had no opportunity of observing its habits, and the drawing and description are
consequently not so perfect as we could have wished. In form it is less elegant than is
usual in this family, but the colours, though sober, have a pleasing effect from the variety
and contrast of the markings.
Figs. 1, 2, 3. Different views of Eumenis marmorata.
4, 5. Front and side views of a tentacle.