PENNATUUDA. 69 



Kophobelemnon stelliferum Koll. Monogr. 1872, p. 304, PI. XXI, Figs. 179— 181. 

 » Leuckartii Koll. Ibid. p. 306, PI. XXI, Fig. 182. 



Moebii Kor. & Dan. Berg. Mus. Nye Gorgon, etc. 1883, p. 25, PI. XII. 



abyssorum Kor. & Dan. N. North-Atlantic-Exp. Penn. 1884, p. 10, PI. IV, Figs. 17 — 20. 



scabrum Verrill. Bull. Mus. Conip. Zool. Vol. XI, 1883, p. 7, PI. I, Fig. 5. 

 ? tenue Rep. Comm. Fish and Fisheries 1883, p. 510, PI. Ill, Fig. 5. 



Gunneria borealis Dan. & Kor. N. North-Atlantic-Exp. 1884, p. 58, PI. IV, Figs. 8 — 16. 



Of the genus Kophobelemnon several species have been established, some from the Atlantic 

 (and the different branches of that ocean), others from the Pacific. Of these species as of so many 

 other sea-pens, the same things holds good, that the material has been too scarce to allow their determ- 

 ination to be reliable. Here, however, only the Atlantic species are to be mentioned in detail. As will 

 appear from the above list of synonyms I am of the opinion that they must all be united into one 

 species, which then receives the old specific name stelliferum given it by O. F. M filler. To this 

 must further be added the genus and species Gunneria borealis of Danielssen and Koren (as to this 

 see p. 72). The specimen of O. F. Muller was taken at Drobak, the numerous specimens of Asbjornsen 

 at different places in the Christiania Fjord. When Kolliker worked up the genus in his monograph, 

 he justly referred all the Scandinavian specimens at his disposal to one species, not only those origi- 

 nating from about the same localities as the specimens of Muller and Asbjornsen, but also a few 

 from somewhat great depths in the Atlantic proper, north-west of Scotland (even if he thought them 

 to be a variety durum on account of the size of the spicules; later examination of another specimen 

 from another part of the Atlantic attached this variety still more closely to the type (1. c. p. 370)). At 

 the same time, however, he established a new species K. leuckartii on some specimens from the 

 Mediterranean (Nizza); to be sure he declares this form to be very closely allied to the former, immerhin 

 mahnt der Fundort zur Vorsicht , and he enumerates a number of differences from his K. stelliferum. 

 These differences are: the size of the whole colony and of its individual animals, the number of the 

 polyps, the fact of the calcareous axis reaching to the distal end of the peduncle, a richer provision 

 of spicules and their larger size, the lack of colour in the epithelium of the stomach, and the bound- 

 ary between the peduncle and the rhachis being less distinct. I can, however, declare all these differ- 

 ences to be individual peculiarities; one of them - - the extent downward of the calcareous axis — 

 is quite casual, owing to a contraction of the soft tissues in this region ; and a comparison of the two 

 specific diagnoses will show that no difference is mentioned which is not individually variable according 

 to the knowledge we now possess of other Peunatulids. Nevertheless, the species K leuckartii of Kolliker 

 has been preserved without any objection ; only Paul Fischer, relying presumably on the descriptions of 

 Kolliker, regards the Kophobelemnon of the Mediterranean as the same species as stelliferum dont le 

 K. Leuckartii u 'est qu'un race (Note sur le Pavonaria quadrangularis etc., Bull. Zool. de France, Vol. 14, 

 1889, p. T,y). That it does not, at all events, represent a race peculiar only to the Mediterranean - 

 in this case the question of species or race would be rather a difficult one to solve — is shown by the 

 fact that it is said to occur also in the north, inside the territory of the genuine. K. stelliferum. 



In 1872 the German Pommerania Expedition found some specimens of Kophobelemnon in the 

 Skager Rak which were determined as K leuckartii Koll. by F. E. Schultze (Jahresber. der Komm. 



