Note on Studeria mirabilis. By Prof. J. A. Thomson. 679 



The most obvious differences between Studeria and Paralcy- 

 o nium may be summed up in the following contrast : — 



Studeria mirabilis. 



The polyps are crowded on 

 numerous finger - like branches, 

 which cover a central dome, and 

 also grow out from the inner walls 

 of the cup. 



The polyps have a dense arma- 

 ture of spicules, forming a well- 

 defined calyx. 



The walls of the cup are very 

 massive and hard. 



The retractile polyparium is 

 very substantial, including strong 

 muscle-bands. 



The larger spindles are very 

 characteristic, being covered with 

 warts in thick-set rows. 



Parole i/o ilium. 



The polyps are distant from one 

 another, and are borne on the ends 

 of the twigs of a loosely-branched 

 polyparium. 



The polyps have minute spicules 

 at the base of the tentacles, but 

 there is no calyx. 



The walls of the cylindrical 

 lower portion are not thick, and 

 the whole is readily compressible. 



The retractile polyparium is very 

 delicate and translucent. 



The spindles are much smaller, 

 and much less warty. 



It should be noted that Studeria mirabilis is much larger than 

 Paraleyonium elegans, much more massive, with much larger and 

 coarser spicules, and so on ; but we have reason to believe that the 

 massiveness of architecture is a specific, not a generic character. 

 We saw in September in the Zoological Museum in Hamburg a 

 number of un-named specimens of a form which we believe to be 

 closely related to Studeria. By the courtesy of the director, 

 Professor Kraepelin, and of Dr. Michaelsen, who has charge of the 

 section of the museum containing Alcyonaria and the like, we 

 were able to examine this form, and to compare it with the ' Inves- 

 tigator ' type. The Hamburg specimens, which were collected off 

 Formosa (Takao), agree with the ' Investigator ' specimen in having 

 a retractile polyparium, similar polyps, and the same type of huge 

 warty spindle, but they have not the strong massive cup, nor, so 

 far as we have seen, the same development of central dome, or of 

 digitiform lobes. We do not wish to pursue the comparison in 

 the meantime, since Professor Kukenthal has, we believe, under- 

 taken to describe the un-named Alcyonarians in the Hamburg 

 Museum. "We would, however, express our conclusion that the 

 Hamburg specimens belong, or are closely related, to the' genus 

 Studeria, which we have established for the ' Investigator ' type. 

 [It must be added that we exhibited, described, and named the 

 ' Investigator ' specimen in August 1907, at the Meeting of the 

 International Congress of Zoologists at Boston. As we have heard 

 nothing regarding the manuscript which we deposited, we have 

 thought it necessary to record the facts afresh.] 



