Fam. 1, Plate 16.
Mgs. 1, 2,3.
DORIS SUBQUADRATA, Alder and H ancock.
D. crassa, alba, subpellucida; pallio parvo, subquadrato, caput et pedem baud tegente, papillis
parvis; teutaculis crassis, vaginis laevibus; branchiis 7, magnis, bipinuatis, repandis, non retractilibus;
pede crasso.
Doris subquadrata, Aid. and Hanc., in Ann. Nat. Hist., v. 16, p. 313.
Hab. In deepisb water, Torbay, J. A.
Body nearly an inch long, rather elevated, white, with a slight yellowish tinge, semitransparent.
Cloak small, scarcely covering the head when the animal is extended, and
exposing the foot behind. It is somewhat squared before and behind, and has the edge
mostly a little elevated; it is not very convex, and is thinly covered with smallish, unequal
conical papillae, which become larger towards the sides. Dorsal tentacles stout and subclavate,
with twelve or fourteen laminae scarcely reaching behind. They issue from very short
sheaths with smooth edges. Branchial plumes seven, non-retractile, bipinnate; the anterior
and lateral ones large and spreading; the posterior small, with an additional branch on the
inside. The plumes have each a very strong midrib, which is attached for nearly half its
length to the cloak, leaving only the ends and sides of the plumes free. These ribs expand
very much at the base, and become confluent with the central area surrounding the anus.
The plumes are of a transparent yellowish white, and have an opaque white line on each
side of the midrib, as in Doris pilosa, but less conspicuous : the whole forms an irregular star
longest in the transverse diameter. Read furnished with a semicircular veil, produced into
rounded obtuse angles at the sides. Foot very large and thick, rather rounded m front, and
extending to a blunt point considerably beyond the cloak behind. The sides are high, and
there is a slight ridge from the posterior part of the cloak to the tail.
We have met with only one example of this interesting Doris. It was dredged near
Berry Head, Torbay, in May, 1845, and, unfortunately, did not live very long after its
capture, so that its habits remain unobserved. From the softness of the cloak we conclude
that it contained very few spicula, but we were unwilling to cut up our single specimen to
ascertain their character.
This Doris, which is closely related to D. pilosa, forms, from the smallness of its cloak, a
connecting link between this genus and Goniodoris.