44 Bulletin Vanderbilt MaHne Museum, Vol. VII 



CHONDROPHORAE 



Family: PORPITIDAE 



Genus: PORPEMA Haeckel 



Porpema prunella (Haeckel) 



i 



Type: Dr. Ernst Haeckel, professor of Zoology in the Uni- 

 versity of Jena, found this species in 1888, on the young stages 

 only, taken by the "Challenger" at station 222, north of New- 

 Guinea, in the Pacific Ocean and also at station 288, in the South 

 Pacific, in 2600 fathoms and deposited in the British Museum of 

 Natural History. 



Dr. H. B. Bigelow (1911) described the adult forms from an 

 extensive series of specimens taken by the "Albatross" in the tropi- 

 cal eastern Pacific, at stations 4685 and 4686, and deposited in the 

 United States National Museum and the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology. 



Distribution : This species, originally reported from the Pa- 

 cific Ocean, north of New Guinea, at the surface, and more recently 

 taken by the "Albatross," in the tropical eastern Pacific, off the 

 west coast of Peru, about Long. 95°, Lat. 21° S., in quantity, was 

 taken by the "Alva" north of the Marquesas Islands, in a 150 

 f athoms-to-surface haul. The record is of interest, being a station 

 intermediate between the widely separated earlier records. 



Material examined : A corm practically denuded of tentacles 

 and gonozooids, this corm diameter being 2.5 millimeters preserved 

 specimen ; a second corm 2 millimeters wide ; another corm with 

 the bell broken but with several tentacles attached, also a few 

 gonozooids, this corm about 2.5 millimeters wide; three more 

 corms with broken bells, two separate pieces of tentacle base, also 

 a separate contracted gonozooid, all taken in plankton, haul from 

 150 fathoms to surface, north of Nuka Hiva Island, Marquesas 

 Islands, August 11, 1931. 



References : Porpalia prunella, Haeckel, E., Jena Zeit. f . Natur- 

 wiss. Berlin, 1888, p. 30 ; Kept. Voy. H. M. S. "Challenger" 

 Zool., 1888, vol. XXVIII, p. 58, pi. 48. 



