THE EULIMAS - FAMILY EULIMIDAE. Shell small, porcellanous, white, polished, with slender spire; aperture oval; foot elongated; proboscis long, retractile; jaws and radula wanting. A little-known family of small mol lusks parasitic on bivalves, sea-urchins and sea-cucumbers.
Genus EULIMA, Risso Characters of the family. Spire often curved to one side. Foot secretes a mucous filament which helps the mollusk to float.
The patient host must feed itself and its parasites, which, having no chewing organs, suck liquid food from the bodies they live upon. One species which lives on the outside of a sea cucumber is seen to have no foot developed; it is fixed to one spot as if planted. But this one has developed a proboscis three times as long as the body; the tip of this flexible organ explores the surface for as great a distance as possible, taps the skin, and sucks the cucumber's blood. Another species is parasitic on the stomach wall. It moves about on a large foot and has a very short proboscis. From arctic to tropic seas these little pests
are found; some species are found attached to bivalve shells, others to the opercula of univalves.
The Shining Eulima (E. micans, Cpr.) is bluish white, a glis tening, slender, straight spire about two-fifths of an inch long, with a small oval mouth. Vancouver Island to San Diego, Cal.
E. intermedia, Cantraine,one of the few east coast species, is to an inch long; its slender, semi-transparent spire is tinged with brown. The body whorl is elongated.
Habitat.— Europe and United States, on Atlantic coasts.
E. candida, Marrat, is a good illustration of the family peculiarities of form which our native species do not emphasise. The oblique line of varices down from the spire show where the mouth was at successive stages of growth. The spire is bent slightly. Colour, white. Length, I to 2 inches.
Habitat.— Island of Formosa.
171