278 BULLETIN 93, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Mr. Stebbing has shown that Darwin followed Lamarck and others 

 blindly in using the name balcznaris Gmelin for this species. That 

 name was introduced by Miiller in 1776 for a Danish form identical 

 with C. diadema. Gmelin's account was wholly compiled from Fab- 

 ricius, who gave an excellent and unmistakable description of C. 

 diadema, under the name Lepas balcenaris. Lamarck in 1802 first 

 used the name balccnaris for the present species, mentioning B alarms 

 balcenaris as one of the species of his new genus CoronulaJ- though he 

 did not make this perfectly clear until 1818. Morch, the Danish 

 conchologist, ascribed the name complar>i,tus to Chemnitz, who had 

 given a description and characteristic figures; 2 but Chemnitz was 

 heterodox in his nomenclature, and therefore Morch must be given as 

 sponsor for the name. The type-specimen is that figured by Chem- 

 nitz. The name C. l>alanarum Blainville seems to me to have been 

 merely a careless slip for baZcenams, for we can hardly suppose that so 

 scholarly a naturalist would intentionally coin a false and inappli- 

 cable name to replace an appropriate one which was certainly well 

 known to him. All codes of nomenclature provide for the elimination 

 of such obvious errors. 



Genus CRYPTOLEPAS Ball. 



1872. Cryptolcpas DALL, Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, 

 vol. 4, p. 300. 



Depressed Coronulina? with the body-chamber shortly cylindric, 

 the parietes bearing radial lamellar folds which are irregularly 

 branched in adults, and are not united into a continuous wall at the 

 ends and above; sheath grooved transversely; radii moderately de- 

 veloped; basis membranous. Opercular valves and oral hood as in 

 Coronula. 



Type. C. rachianecti Dall. 



Distribution. North Pacific, living embedded in the skin of the 

 California gray whale, Rhachianectis glaucus Cope. 



Cryptolepas is very closely related to Coronula, more especially to 

 Coronula (Cetopirus] complanata, w r hich is similar in the contour 

 of body-chamber and exterior; but the present genus differs by 

 lacking terminal flanges uniting the radial lamella? into a solid outer 

 wall, though there is sometimes a suggestive approach to that struc- 

 ture. The number of radial lamellas or folds is greater than in 

 Coronula,' there are four complete and two (sutural) half folds on 

 each compartment, as a rule, but exceptional individuals have the 

 number reduced by one or two folds. The branches of the lamellae 



. du Mus., vol. 1, p. 464. 

 ""Lepas complanata polytJialaiiiia. Balanus polythalamius complanatits," CHEMXITZ, 

 Systematisehes Conchylien Cabinet, vol. 8, 1785, p. 325, pi. 99, figs. 845, 846. 



