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Family Melitodidae. 



Melitodes dichotoma, Pallas (13). 



Localities: 1. Vasco de Gama Peak, N.W. f N., 8 miles. 41 



fathoms. Rock. April 27, 1900. 



2. East of C'ape Agulhas (Sebastian Bluff), W. by 

 N. I W., 6 miles. 26 fathoms. Mud. 



In the first dredging two specimens were obtained, one red and 

 one yellow. It is interesting to find the two varieties of the 

 species in the same haul of the dredge in this locality. In my 

 last communication (6) I pointed out that the two varieties occur 

 in the same locality in False Bay. Beyond the fact that the 

 yellow variety in this new locality is rather more orange coloured 

 than pale yellow, as the specimens of the yellow variety were 

 in False Bay, no important differences were observed. In the 

 second dredging a small piece of (probably) the same species 

 was found growing on a shell of Terebratula rosea. 



Wrightella Coccinea, Gray. 



Gray (4), Catalogue Lithophyt., B. Mus., p. 32. 



Ridley (14), Zool. of Alert, p. 581. 



Locality : Fairly abundant on the piles of the jetty at Mossel 

 Bay. 



The specimens from Mossel Bay are very closely related to the 

 specimens described by Gray as Wrightella coccinea from the 

 Seychelles. Unfortunately, the genus Wrightella is not very 

 well known, and is not very well defined from its neighbours. 



The specimens in the collection agree with the description of 

 the genus in having foliaceous clubs in the cortex ; in the fact 

 that the nodes are not perforated by canals, and that the 

 branches arise from the nodes. 



The foliaceous clubs (Blattkeule) are not very numerous, but 

 are very variable m form. Ridley says that the genus is dis- 

 tinguished by the " very massive form of the Blattkeule and the 

 swelhng out of their ' Blatt ' into rounded bodies with scarcely 

 perceptible edges." This description is perhaps a little difficult 

 to understand. It appears to me that the Blattkeule are formed 

 by the exaggerated growth of the tubercles at one end of a 

 tuberculated club. They may become expanded and anasto- 

 mose, forming leaf-like processes of irregular shape, or, as in the 

 case under description, the tubercles of nearly two-thirds of the 

 thicker end of many of the clubs may be prolonged into long 

 rod-like process with rounded ends. There is so much variety 

 m the spicules of this species, however, that it is impossible to 



