CORALS FROM MURRAY, COCOS-KEELING, AND FANNING ISLANDS. 12J 



Merulina ampliata (Ellis and Solander.) 

 Plate 52, figures 1, la, lb. 

 1857. Merulina ampliata Milne Edwards and Haime, Hist. nat. Corall., vol. 2, p. 628. 



There is in the U. S. National Museum, from Torres Strait, a specimen of 

 Merulina which is undoubtedly M. ampliata. Plate 52, figs. 1, la, lb, represent three 

 views of it. The collines are usually narrow, as in Ellis and Solander's type, two 

 photographs of which have been kindly sent me by Professor J. Graham Kerr 

 of the University of Glasgow. The collines in the specimen referred by Dana to 

 M. ampliata are mostly round, as he observes, while in M. regalis they are either 

 round or acute. 



Distribution. — Maldives (Gardiner); East Indies; Torres Strait. 



MADREPORARIA FUNGIDA. 1 



Family FUNGIIDiE Dana. 



Genus FUNGIA Lamarck. 



1801. Fungia Lamarck, Syst. Anim. sans. Vert., p. 369. 



1902. Fungia Doderlein, Korallengat. Fungia, Abhandl. Senckenb. naturf. Gesellscb., vol. 27, pt. 1, 



pp. i-iii, 1-162, 25 plates. 

 1905. Fungia Vaughan, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 28, p. 380. 

 1907. Fungia Vaughan, U. S. Nat Mus. Bull. 59, pp. 1 10-134. 

 1909. Fungia Gardiner, Trans. Linn. Soc. London, 2d ser., Zool., vol. 12, p. 263. 



Type species: Madrepora fungites Linnaeus. 



Fungia aff. F. concinna Verrill. 



1902. Fungia plana Doderlein, Korallengat. Fungia, p. in, plate II, figs. 2-5. 



1902. Fungia concinna Doderlein, Korallengat. Fungia, p. 113, plate 12, figs. 1-2; plate 13, fig. 4. 



1909. Fungia concinna Gardiner, Trans. Linn. Soc. London, 2d ser., Zool., vol. 12, p. 276. 



A single attached anthocyathus is 22 mm. long by 21.5 mm. wide, and has 

 an imperforate, finely costate base. Costae regularly alternate in size and have 

 finely granulate edges. Septal margins microscopical dentate. Twelve principal 

 septa, smaller septa in anastomosing groups between the principals. Five complete 

 cycles, and in some quarter systems the sixth cycle is complete. The resemblance 

 to the Fungia patella group is close. Because of the immaturity of the specimen, 

 a positive identification is not attempted. 



Station, Murray Island. — Southeast reef, line I, 1,445 f eet from shore; water 

 14 inches deep at lowest tide; hard, rocky bottom, no sand. 



Distribution of F. concinna (taken from Gardiner). — Red Sea; East Africa; Sey- 

 chelles; Chagos; East Indies; Philippines; New Britain; Pacific. 



Fungia fungites (Linn.). 



1902. Fungia fungites Doderlein, Korallengat. Fungia, p. 136, plates 20-25 (all figs.). 



1910. Fungia Wood Jones, Coral and Atolls, p. 58, text-figs. 2, 3. 



The following description is based on a specimen from Murray Island: 



Disk slightly arched above, and somewhat concave below, 170 mm. long, about 150 

 mm. wide, height 48 mm. 



Septa, on the edge of the disk, about 12 to I cm.; every third or sixth usually thicker 

 and more prominent than those intermediate, usually 5 intermediate thin septa between 

 the thicker, but the number of the thin septa ranges from 2 to 7. Fairly prominent tenta- 

 cular lobes on all, except the longest and next to the longest. About 28 septal ends around 



'For a critical review of the simple genera of the Madreporaria Fungida, see Vaughan, Proc. U. S. Nat. 

 Mus., vol. 28, pp. 371-424, 1905. The review of the colonial genera has not been completed. 



