| OCR Text |
Show 1906.] OF SOUTHERN INDIA AND CEYLON. 639 The following identifications are probable, but cannot be regarded as certain until further specimens are examined :- 1. Chromodoris fidelis (Kelaart)= Chr. Jlammulata Bergh. 2. Hoplodoris desmoparypha Bergh = Plat y dor is papillata Eliot. 3. Asteronotus hemprichi Ehrenberg = Doris exanthemata Kelaart. 4. Thordisa crosslandi Eliot 1904 = Diaulula (? ) gigantea Bergh 1905. 5. Doris intecta Kelaart = Trippa ornata Bergh. 6. Doris leoparda Kelaart ~T r. monsoni Eliot. 7. Doridopsis tubercidosa (Q. & G.) var. = Doris carbunculosa Kelaart. 8. Diphyllidia marmorata Kelaart= Linguella cinerea Farran. 9. Phyllobranchus orientalis (Kelaart) {Ph. prasinus Bergh. Ph. rubicundus Bergh. In both these lists the first name has priority if the identity is established. The following references to genera are certain or probable :- 1. Chromodoris gleniei (Kelaart). 2. Chr. ? amabilis (Kelaart). 3. Chr. tennentana (Kelaart). 4. Platydoris ellioti (A. &, H.); not Discodoris ellioti. 5. Halgerda ? apiculata (A. & H.). 6. Staurodoris rusticata (A. & H.). 7. Doriopsilla miniata (A. & H.). 8. Stiliger ? viridis (Kelaart). A specimen marked " Doris osseosa, Ceylon, Dr. Kelaart," appears to be the animal described by me as Sclerodoris osseosa (Kelaart) in Proc. Zool. Soc. 1903, ii. p. 380. No one who attempts to determine the species of tropical Nudibranchs can fail to be struck with the great variability of their external characters. Probably no group of animals offers more striking illustrations of how species arise out of varieties. Even land-slugs show how susceptible the soft molluscan skin is to changes of colour when it is not protected by a shell; and in the Nudibranchiata, the watery habitat of which favours the growth of processes and appendages, variations of form also are frequent. Again, form, as well as colour, is liable to be distorted by the ordinary methods of preservation, and it may happen that two descriptions of the same animal-one treating of the external characters during life, and the other chiefly concerned with the anatomy of a dead specimen-have nothing in common and are not recognised as referring to the same species. The principal types of structure in the group are now fairly well known; but it Proc. Z ool. Soc.-1906, No. XLIII. 43 |
