Stuckey. — Neio Zealand Actinian, Bunodes aureoradiata. 367 



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Art. XXXIV. — Notes on a New Zealand Actinian, Bunodes aureoradiata. 



By F. G. A. Stuckey, M.A. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, Mrd June, 1908.] 



The family Bunodidce was established by Gosse for the reception of forms 

 " the surface of whose column is studded with persistent tubercles, and 

 which is not provided with marginal spherules or with jDerforations of the 

 integument." Among other genera it included Tealia and Bunodes. The 

 latter genus included one species, B. coronata, which was provided with 

 acontia,* structures which are now recognised as denoting sagartiad affinities. 

 Among the " Challenger " material Hertwig found a Bunodes (B. minuta) 

 " whose structure approaches that of Sagartia more closely than that of 

 Tealia." Considering, therefore, that Bunodes and Tealia should be widely 

 separated systematically, he placed the genus Bunodes among the sagartiads,t 

 and established the family Tealidw, taking T. crassicornis as its type. He 

 made the presence of a strong endodermal sphincter muscle the leading 

 characteristic of the family, also regarding of importance the presence of 

 a large number of perfect mesenteries, and including forms with both smooth 

 and warty columns. Later| he changed the name of the family, restoring 

 the older name Bunodidce. 



Referring to Gosse's description of various species of Bunodes, we find 

 the hexamerous condition to be constant, the tentacular formulae beinu 

 6 + 6 + 12 + 24 = 48, 6 + 6 + 12 + 24 + 24 = 72, or 6+6+12+24 

 + 48 = 96. Again, in Delage and Herouard the number of mesenteries 

 in Bunodes is stated to be 24 pairs, 12 of them being perfect. Gosse's 

 description of T. crassicornis states the tentacular formula as 5+5+10 

 + 20 + 40 = 80. Again, Bourne§ gives the mesenterial arrangement of 

 T. crassicornis as follows : 10 pairs complete and apparently primary, 

 ]0 pairs secondary, 20 pairs tertiary. There appears to be reasonable 

 g.ound for thinking that the hexamerous and pentamerous forms should 

 not be associated in the same family. Bourne separates them, and, 

 "provisionally accepting" an ingenious suggestion made by Boveri in his 

 " Development and Phylogeny of Zooantharia," makes Tealiidce one of his 

 families in which the hexamerous arrangement is obscured by precocious 

 development of the secondary and succeeding cycles of mesenteries. 



In a paper (1901) which I have not seen, but which is referred to by 

 Torrey, II McMurrich unites in a new family, Crihrinidrp, Ehrenberg's genus 

 Cribrina, which he thinks synonymous with Bunodes (Gosse), Bunodactis 

 (Verrill), and Evactis (Verrill). As I do not know his reasons for this change, 

 I propose for the present to retain the older name of the family — namely, 

 Bunodido'. 



Fam.' BUNODID^. 



Tentacles digitate ; pedal-disc present, acontia absent ; sphincter strong, 

 circumscribed, endodermal ; numerous perfect mesenteries ; column gene- 

 rally covered with warts. 



* " Actinologia Britannica," p. 204. § " Treatise on Zoology," ed. Ray Laii- 



t " Challenger" Rejiort, Zoology, vol. vi. kester. 



X Supplement to " Challenger" Report. i| Proc. Wash. Ac. So., vol. iv, p. 390. 



