Boone, Coelenterata, Cruises of "Eagle" and "Ara" 1921-28 27 



COELENTERATA: SYSTEMATIC DISCUSSION. 



HYDROCORALLINAE. 

 Family: MILLEPORIDAE. 



Genus: millepora Linne. 

 Millepora alcicornis Linne. 

 Name : Sea-Ginger. 



Type: Linne states: "Habitat in 0. India utriusque." 

 Distribution : Shallow water to ten fathoms ; found from Florida 

 to northern Brazil. 



Material examined: Several specimens collected on the south 

 coast of Cuba, February 19, 1923. 



Remarks : This is one of the most important and abundant of the 

 reef-building animals of the West Indies. In life it is usually dark 

 russet-brown, but occasionally it is orange-brown or umber-brown. 

 When young it often encrusts shells, corals or gorgonians ; when well 

 grown it forms large clusters of finger-like fronds, the groups often 

 being four to six feet across and one to two feet high. The shape of 

 the fronds varies greatly. When young it forms encrustations on dead 

 corals, shells and sea-fans, and on these latter as they shrink or swell 

 the millepore breaks into bead-like forms. The zooids are armed with 

 unusually powerful stinging cells which cause it to be called "Sea- 

 ginger." Several distinct subspecies have been described from West 

 Indian waters. In 1858 Louis Agassiz first established the hydroid 

 nature of the zooids of this millepore. 

 References: Millepora alcicornis Linne, Syst. Nat. ed. 10, p. 791, 



1758 ; ed. 12, p. 1282, 1767.— Dana, Zooph. U. S. Explor. Exped., 



vol. VII, p. 543, 1846. — H. Milne Edwards and Haime, Hist. 



Nat. Corall., vol. Ill, p. 228, I860.— Pourtales, Mem. Mus. Comp. 



Zool., vol. VII, pi. XX, figs. 1-6, 1880.— Hickson, Proc. Zool. Soc. 



London, for 1898, p. 256.— Vaughan, Bull. U. S. Fish. Comm. 



XX, part 2, p. 318, 1901.— Verrill, A. E., Trans. Conn. Acad. 



Arts and Sci., vol. XI, p. 182, 1903 ; ibid, XII, p. 37, 1904-07. 



ANTHOMEDUSAE. 



Family : OCEANIDAE Vanhoffen, s. s. 



Genus : STOMOTICA L. Agassiz. 

 Stomotica divisa Maas. 



Type: Maas' type was taken by the "Albatross" at Station 3383, 

 in the Bay of Panama; depository not given. 



