CORALS FROM MURRAY, COCOS-KEELING, AND FANNING ISLANDS. IOI 



Calices polygonal, intercorallite walls fused, subequal fission, with spines on upper 

 part of septal edges. Genus Acanthastrea. 



19- Favia hemprichii (Ehrenberg)*! j Probably the same species, and prob- 



22. pammurata Gardiner. /' M. ably referable to Acanthastrea. 

 10. hirsuta (M. Edw. and H.) *Acanthastrea echinata (Dana). 



Calices polygonal, often pentagonal, asexual reproduction by marginal fission. Genus 



Favites. 



5- Favia abdita (Ell. and Sol.) *Favites abdita (Ell. and Sol.). 



18. complanata (Ehrenberg) * complanata (Ehr.). 



17- vasta (Klunzinger) * virens (Dana). 



15. halicora (Ehrenberg) * halicora (Ehr.). 



7- pentagona (Esper) * melicerum (Ehr.). 



Matthai's No. 20, Favia favosa (Ell. and Sol.), seems to me to be a trueFavia and 

 close to F. speciosa (Dana), notwithstanding that he says, "new corallites are formed 

 by unequal fission." The name favosa is invalid for it. If it is not a synonym of 

 a previously described species, its name will be magnistellata M. Edw. and H. 



It will be made evident in a following description that fission in Favia pallida 

 (Dana) is not really subequal, but that it is unequal. A part of the calice is cut off 

 by a partition growing across one side or one end of the calice and rarely passing 

 through the columellar area. The fission is not so nearly marginal as is usual in 

 the species referred to Favites. 



From the preceding statements it is obvious that I do not agree with Mat- 

 thai in merging so many formerly recognized genera under Favia. I am distribut- 

 ing the species among the old genera, Orbicella, Favia, Favites, and Acanthastrea. 

 It seems to me that Phymastrea should probably be referred to the synonymy 

 of Favia. Favia hombroni (Rousseau) Matthai and Prionastraa tenella Gardiner 

 {non Dana) appear to me more probably to belong to Goniastrea. The changes in 

 the nomenclature of the species are discussed under the respective descriptions 

 of the species. I somewhat doubt whether the coral designated Favia hombroni 

 by Matthai is Parastrea hombroni L. Rousseau, as Rousseau's figure indicates 

 corallites with subcircular, separate, not contiguous calices; but in the description 

 there is the statement "ayant quelquefois leur bords soudes et subpolygonaux." 

 Under these circumstances it seems that the name can not be made secure with- 

 out a restudy of the actual type. 



Favia stelligera (Dana). 



Plate 34, figures 2, la, lb, Dana's type of Astraa stelligera; plate 34, figure 3, plate 35, figures I, la, VerriU's type 

 of Plesiastraa armata; plate 35, figures 2, 2a, 3, specimens from Cocos-Keeling Islands; figure 4, a varietal 

 form from Fanning Island. 



1846. A. Orbicella stelligera Dana, U. S. Expl. Exped., Zooph., p. 216, plate 10, figs, ga-qe. 

 1846. Astra-a [Fiscicella]intersepta Dana (non Esper). U.S. Expl. Exped., Zooph., p. 246,'plate 1 3, figs. 12, I2a-I2^. 

 1857. Favia lobala Milne Edwards and Haime, Hist. nat. Corall., vol. 2, p. 434, plate D 8, tig. 3. 

 1872. Plesiastraa armata Verrill, in Dana's Corals and Coral Islands, 1st ed., p. 381. 

 1879. Favia lobata Klunzinger, Korall. Roth. Meer., pt. 2, p. 31, plate 3, fig. 9; plate 10, fig. 8. 

 1914. Favia acropora Matthai [non Esper), Trans. Linn. Soc. London, 2d ser., Zool., vol. 17, p. 102, plate 

 25, figs. I, 3; plate 33, fig. 1; (plate 26, fig. 4, probably represents another species). 



As Matthai applies the name acropora Linnaeus to this species, a few remarks 

 on its availability will be made. Gregory, 1 in his account of the corals from the 

 elevated reefs of Barbados, applied this name to the usual small-celled West Indian 

 species of Orbicella, as he considered that annularis Dana intergraded with it. In 

 two of my papers 2 1 followed Gregory's usage, but based my identifications on Esper's 



■Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. London, vol. 51, p. 272, 1895. 



2 Some fossil corals from Curacao, Arube, and Bonaire, Samml. Geol. Reichs Mus. Leiden, ser. 2, vol. 2, pp. 

 23-27, 1901; Stony corals of the Porto Rican waters, U. S. Fish Com. Bull, for 1900, pp. 300-301, 1901. 



