OCR Text |
Show 1906.] OF SOUTHERN INDIA AND CEYLON. 661 Doridopsis" (Trans. Linn. Soc. 1865, xxv. 2, pp. 189-207), is still well worth reading. The family is divided into two genera, Doriopsilla and Doridopsis. Doriopsilla, which is discussed below, contains at present about six species. (Doriopsilla granulosa (Pease) is doubtful.) 1. Doriopsilla areolata Bergh. 2. D. pelseneeri Oliviera. 3. D. miniata (A. & H.). 4. D. pallida Bergh. 5. D. Icevis Bergh. 6. D. reticidata Cockerell & Eliot. Species 3, 4, and 5 are perhaps very closely related. In a paper by Prof. Cockerell and myself (Journ. of Malac. 1905, vol. xii. pt. 3) Bergh's list of the species of Doridopsis given in his ‘ System ' was brought up to date, and 64 species were indicated. Of these, D. miniata and D. reticulata are now shown to be Doriopsillce, but the following additions from Bergh s Opisthobranchs of the ‘ Siboga' may be made:- 63. D. erubescens Bergh. 64. D. amcena Bergh. 65. D.flaccida Bergh. 66. D. weberi Bergh. These sixty-six species probably include many synonyms, and many of them, particularly those described by D'Orbigny, Crosse, and Pease, are only doubtfully referable to the genus. Neither the buccal parts nor the genitalia supply specific characters in the majority of cases, and the external appearance is even more variable than in Chromodoris. One of the best known species, D. nigra, is protean in its transformations. It not only ranges from black to white, with or without coloured borders and spots, but is sometimes smooth and sometimes tuberculate. As a rule, however, the smooth and tuberculate forms appear to be distinct. D o r id o p s is t u b e r c u l o s a (Quoy & Gaim.) var. (Doris carbunculosa Kelaart, 1. c. I. p. 301 ; Bergh in Semper's Reisen, xvi. 2, p. 845.) Alder and Hancock (I. c. p. 128) pointed out that Kelaart's D. carbunculosa is probably the same as Quoy and Gaimard's D. tubercidosa, though it differs in not having white spots on the under side. These white spots are very conspicuous in the living animal and remain in alcoholic specimens. Bergh, however (I. c.), has described a variety from Mauritius in which the white spots are absent, and which agrees with D. carbunculosa in several details. It is very soft, and the under side of the mantle is " mit feinen Langsfurchen," corresponding to Kelaart's statement that it is veined. |