Family Melitodid.e Wright and Studer. 



Melitea (in part) Lamouroux. Histoire des Polypiers coralligènes flexibles, 1816, p. 458. 

 Isidime (in part) Milne Edwards et Haime. Histoire Naturelle des Coralliaires, I, 1857, P- '9 2 - 

 Melith(£acece (in part) Kölliker. Icones Histiologica;, II, 1865, p. 142. 

 Melitlueadie -\- Mopselladcc + Trinellidm -f- Elliselladce (in part) Gray. Catalogue of Lithophytes 



in the British Museum, 1870, p. 24. 

 TrenellidcB Ridley. Contributions to the knowledge of Alcyonaria, Annals and Magazine of 



Natural History, Series V, Vol. X, 18S2, p. 130. 

 MelithaidcR Ridley. Zoological Collections H. M. S. Alert, 1884, p. 356. 

 Melitfucidce Studer. Versuch eines Systemes der Alcyonaria, 1887, p. 30. 

 Melithceidce Ridley. Alcyonaria of the Mergui Archipelago, Journal Linnsean Society, 1888, 



XXI, p. 244. 

 Melitodidm Wright and Studer. Challenger Reports, the Alcyonaria, 1889, pp. xxxv, 170. 

 MclitodidiE Bourne. A treatise on Zoology, II, Chap. VI, 1900, p. 25. 

 Melitodidce Kükenthal. Die Gorgonidenfamilie der Melitodidae Verrill. Zoologischer Anzeiger, 



Bd. XXXIII, N° 7/8, 190S, p. 189. 



On account of their striking superficial resemblance in the jointed axis to certain Isidae, 

 the species of the Melitodidae and Isidae were placed together by a number of the earlier 

 writers, much to the confusion of the systematic arrangement of these forms. Lamouroux (18 16) 

 recognized the difference between the axes of this heterogeneous group of "Isidées" and formed 

 the genus Melitea to accommodate species vvith spongy and inflated internodes, and included 

 in it Melitea ochraeea, M. de risso (= Isis coccinea Gmelin), M. retifera and M. textiformis. 



Milne Edwards and Haime (1857) combine the genera Isis, M^opsea and Melithcea in 

 their subfamily Isidinae. 



Kölliker (1865) included the genera Melithcea and Mopsea in his subfamily Melithaeaceae. 



Ridley (1884) discusses the family "Melithaeidae" at considerable length and shows that 

 the three families Melithaeidae, Mopsellidae and Ellisellidae of Gray can not be regarded as 

 distinct, and includes them all in one family Melithaeidae in which he includes the followino- 

 genera : Melitodes, Clathraria, Wrightella, Mopsella, Acabaria, Trinella and Parisis, and adds 

 a new genus Psilacabaria. 



Studer (1887) included in "Melithaeidae" the same genera as are included by Ridley, 

 but combines the genera Parisis of Verrill and Trinella of Gray. 



Wright and Studer (1889) substitute the name Melitodidae for Melithaeidae of Ridley 

 because the basis name for the old family was Melitaea, which had previously been used for 

 a genus of insects; while Verrill (1863) proposed the generic name Melitodes as practically a 

 substitute for Melitaea of earlier writers. This suggested the name Melitodidae as a family 

 designation proposed by Wright and Studer, who include the same genera that are named 

 by Studer. Their definition of the family is as follows : 



