Fam. 3, Plate 38.
EMBLETONIA PULCHRA, Alder and Hancock.
E. oblonga, carnea, albo punctata; lobis capitis rotundatis; tentaculis brevibus, di stantibus ;
branchiis ellipticis aurantio-coccineis, albo punctatis; 5— 6 utroque dorsi latere, serie unicS,, dispositis.
Pterochilus pulcher, Aid. and Hanc., in Ann. Nat. Hist., v. 14, p. 329.
Hub. Under stones at low-water mark. Rothesay Bay, Isle of Bute, J. A. Saltcoats, Ayrshire,
Rev. D. Londsborough, junr.
Body about two tenths of an inch long, nearly linear, semitransparent, pale flesh-
coloured, minutely spotted with opaque white. Head lobes expanding into a kind of veil,,
indented in front, and produced and rounded at the sides. Tentacles linear, rather short and
blunt, of the same colour as the body, placed laterally just above the termination of the lobes.
Branchice large, elliptical, with the central vessel bright orange-red, nearly filling the transparent
sheaths, which are spotted with opaque white; the red portion is slightly granular,
and disposed in indistinct transverse bands. The papillae are set in a single row of five or six
down each side of the back ; the first and second pairs are nearly opposite each other, the rest
alternate. The gastric vessel may be seen through the transparent skin of a pale orange
colour, forming two lateral lines before the heart, and a single one behind it, undulating
down the centre of the back, and sending off alternate branches to the papillae. Foot linear,
very narrow, transparent, flesh-coloured, truncated in front, and terminating not far behind
the branchiae in a blunt point.
A specimen from Saltcoats, varied a little in colour from the above description; the
body being almost colourless, and the papillae of a chesnut brown.
The only localities we have to record for this handsome and very rare little mollusk are
confined to Scotland. We are not able to say whether the Eolidia minima-, dredged by
Professors E. Forbes and Goodsir, in Bressay Sound, Shetland, and communicated by the
former to the British Association meeting at Birmingham, in 1839,* is a distinct species of
this genus, or merely a variety of the present. The original sketch by Professor Forbes,
liberally placed in our hands, shows the papillae more slender than in ours, as well as an
additional pair, but as the limits of variation in this species are not yet sufficiently known, we
shall leave the matter for future decision.
Figs. 1, 2, 3. Embletonia pulchra, different views.
4. Gastric system.
5. Jaws and tongue.
6. Three spines from the tongue.
7. An eye.
8. Ear capsule and otolite.
9. Male generative organ.
See Athenaeum for Aug. 31, 1839.