I if) PAPERS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF MARINE BIOLOGY. 



Stations, Murray Island. — Southeast reef, line I: 



400 feet from shore; water 4.5 to 5 inches deep. 

 525 feet from shore; water 12 inches deep; sandy bottom. 

 600 feet from shore; water 6.5 to 10 inches deep; sandy bottom. 

 600 to 640 feet from shore; water 10 inches deep; bottom sandy. 

 675 to 720 feet from shore; water 12 inches deep; bottom sandy. 

 700 feet from shore; water 12 inches deep. 



800 feet from shore; water 10 to 11 inches deep; bottom broken coral. 

 l,6oo feet from shore; water 10 to 16 inches deep; bottom hard, rocky, broken coral. 



Distribution.— Red Sea; Great Barrier Reef; southern Philippine Islands; Fiji 



Islands. 



Goniastrea planulata Milne Edwards and Haime. 



1849. Goniastrea ■planulata Milne Edwards and Haime, Ann. Sci. nat., 3d ser.,ZooI. vol. 12, p. 162. 



1907. Goniastrea pectinata Vaughan, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 32, p. 257 (non Astraa pectinata Ehrenberg). 



1907. Goniastrea pectinata (pars) Matthai, Trans. Linn. Soc. London, Zool., 2d ser., vol. 17, plate 28, fig. 6; 



plate 37, figure 1 {non Ehrenberg). 

 1907. Goniastrea planulata Matthai, Trans. Linn. Soc. London, Zool., 2d ser., vol. 17, p. 121, plate 28, fig. 



5; plate 31, figs. 7, 8. 



As remarked on page 115, it is evident that I wrongly identified as G. pectinata 

 specimens submitted by Dr. Gravier, and it seems that Matthai has committed 

 the same error with similar specimens. 



Professor Stanley Gardiner has sent to the U. S. National Museum a specimen 

 from Salomon Island, Chagos Group, labeled by Mr. Matthai, who has figured 

 Milne Edwards and Haime's type in his work cited in the synonymy (plate 31, 

 fig. 7). A comparison of the specimen transmitted by Professor Gardiner with 

 Milne Edwards and Haime's original description and with the figures of the type 

 published by Mr. Matthai established the correctness of its identification. This 

 specimen incrusts dead coral of the same species and Lithothamnion, and evidently 

 is a colony which had been largely killed and subsequently regenerated. It can 

 be properly compared only with the incrusting lower part of such colonies as I 

 described in my paper on corals from French Somaliland and of the marginal part of 

 such as Matthai figures on plate 37, figure 1. There are two of the French Somaliland 

 specimens in the U. S. National Museum, and I have made the comparison indicated, 

 with the result that I am changing the identification of the specimens. An inspection 

 of Matthai's figures 5 and 6, plate 28, shows that the principal difference is in the 

 greater development of the pali and in the shallower calices of figure 5, which is 

 referred to G. planulata, as compared with figure 6, which is referred to G. pectinata. 

 This is the kind of variation which is common in colonies living under adverse con- 

 ditions as compared with those more favorably situated, or the peripheral parts of 

 colonies as compared with summit areas. 



Distribution. — Red Sea; Djibouti (French Somaliland); Maldives; Chagos; at 

 present known only in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. 



Goniastrea benhami Vaughan. 



Under this name I have described a coral in the paper entitled " Some corals from 

 Kermadec Islands" mentioned on page 67 of this memoir. The original descrip- 

 tion and six figures have been transmitted for publication in the Transactions of 

 the New Zealand Institute. In order to round out the treatment of the genus 

 Goniastrea, the description of the species and the comments on its affinities are also 

 published here. 



Description of holotype. — Corallum with a small basal attachment, from which it grows 

 outward with an upwardly inclined, sub-horizontal, or undulate lower surface. Epitheca 

 distinct, thin, wrinkled, finely striate. Upper surface curved, with one small hump. 



