DORIS COCCINEA, Forbes.
D. coccinea, nigro maculata: pallio granulis minutis confertis: tentaculis obtusis, brevibus, late
laminatis, lutescentïbus, bnmneo-maculatis: brancbiis 10, pinnatis, parvis, erectis, rubris, intra foramen
retractilibus.
Doris coccinea, Forbes, in Report Brit. Assoc, for 1843, p. 133.
ffab. Under stones and rocks between tide-marks ; not uncommon on the Cornish Coast.
Body rather above half an inch long, a little depressed, elliptic oblong, with the sides
nearly parallel. Cloak not extending much beyond the foot, of a bright scarlet colour,
generally sprinkled with small black spots, and thickly covered with very minute spiculose
tubercles of nearly equal size; under side of the same colour as the upper,- without markings.
Dorsal tentacles stout, short, and clavate, yellowish, blotched with brown; transparent
towards the base ; they have about ten broad laminm, deeply cleft and widely separated in
front, and spreading much on each side, above which the tentaöle is terminated by a slender
projecting stile with an obtuse apex. The apertures are without sheaths, but surrounded by
pale, opaque, yellow tubercles, larger than those on thé other parts of the cloak, with a few
intermediate dark brown or black markings : the tubercles are also larger, and of the same
yellow colour between the tentacles, uniting them by an indistinct band. Branches very
small, forming a small, almost complete circle, consisting of ten slender, upright, sharp-pointed,
and simply pinnate plumes of a red colour, paler than the cloak, and inclining to pink; the
two posterior plumes are smaller than the rest; and appear to arise from the base of those
next to them. The whole are retractile within a small cavity. Oral tentacles long, linear, and
slender, tapering towards the points. Head tubular, rounded in front, with the lips fleshy.
Foot reddish flesh-coloured, with a long, narrow, purplish stain in the centre, from the liver
appearing through. It^ is rounded and cleft transversely in front, with the upper lamina
notched in the centre; the posterior extremity is pointed, and extends a- little beyond the
cloak when the animal is crawling. P|
This handsome species was first sent us from Polperro on the Cornish coast by Mr. R. Q.
Couch, and afterwards by Mr. Cocks from Falmouth. On a recent visit to the latter place,
we found it not uncommon there in the month of June, and, with the exception of
D tuberculata, it was then the only species observed on the rocky parts of the coast.
We have ascertained, by a comparison with Professor Edward Forbes’s drawings, kindly
lent us for the purpose, that this is the species mentioned in his ‘ Report on the fEgean
MoUusca,’ under the name of Doris coccinea. We hesitate, however, to unite it with the
Doris found by the same distinguished naturalist in the Isle of Mair, and described in the
| Annals of Natural History’ (vol. v), as D. argo. The latter will much more likely prove to