A guide to the shell and starfish galleries : $b (Mollusca, Polyzoa, Brachiopoda, Tunicata, Echinoderma, and Worms) — John Shaqi
A guide to the shell and starfish galleries : $b (Mollusca, Polyzoa, Brachiopoda, Tunicata, Echinoderma, and Worms)British Museum (Natural History). Department of Zoology
Science
A guide to the shell and starfish galleries : $b (Mollusca, Polyzoa, Brachiopoda, Tunicata, Echinoderma, and Worms)
British Museum (Natural History). Department of Zoology
Echinodermata; Mollusks; Worms
Shell-less Pteropod (_Clione limacina_).
_a._ Dorsal view. _b._ Ventral aspect.
]
About a hundred species are known.
[Sidenote: Case 96.]
The Sea-Hares, so called on account of a slight resemblance to a
crouching hare and not for their nimbleness of foot, are found in most
parts of the world, in pools at low water. At the hinder part of the
back two flaps of the mantle partly conceal a thin horny shell which
serves as a protection to the gills and vital organs beneath. When
molested, these animals discharge a large quantity of a purple fluid,
discolouring the surrounding water for a distance of more than a yard.
[Illustration:
Fig. 18.
Sea-Hare (_Tethys (Aplysia) punctata_). British.
_a_, labial tentacles; _b_, upper tentacles or rhinophores; _c_,
siphonal fold of the mantle near the shell; _d_, eye.
]
[Sidenote: Case 97.]
The shell of _Umbraculum_ is shaped very like that useful article, an
umbrella, of the Chinese pattern. The animal is very large, having its
breathing-organs on the right side below the shell.
[Sidenote: Case 97.]
The _Nudibranchs_ or Naked-gilled Molluscs comprise some of the most
beautiful and strange forms. They are unprovided with shells except in
the earliest stages of their existence, when they dwell in a minute
nautiloid shell, furnished with an operculum, both of which are
subsequently cast off. Unfortunately the colours of these beautiful
creatures cannot be preserved after death, and therefore a small series
of glass models is exhibited, which will give some idea of their great
variety in form and colouring. They are found in most parts of the
world, chiefly in shallow water, but a few species live upon floating
seaweed in the open sea. Over a hundred species exist on the British
coast, the majority of which are, however, very small. They are chiefly
carnivorous, feeding on other molluscs, sea-anemones, &c.
[Illustration:
Fig. 19.
The Umbrella-shell (_Umbraculum mediterraneum_).
_a_, shell; _b_, gills; _c_, tentacles; _d_, mouth; _e_, foot.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 20.
Naked-gilled Mollusc, or Nudibranch (_Doto coronata_).
_a_, head; _b_, foot; _c_, gills; _d_, tentacle-sheath; _e_, tentacle.
]
Order 2.—PULMONATA.
[Sidenote: Cases 97–135.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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