138 PAPERS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF MARINE BIOLOGY. 



Pavona maldivensis (Gardiner). 



Plate 56, figures 3, 3a, -}b, specimen from Cocos-Keeling Islands. 



1905. Siderastrea maldivensis Gardiner, Fauna and Geogr. Maldive and Laccadive Arch., vol. 2, sup. I, p. 

 935, plate 89, figs. 1-3. 



In my memoir on the Hawaiian corals 1 I pointed out that Siderastrea maldi- 

 vensis Gardiner does not belong to the genus Siderastrea, but groups with Pavona 

 clavus Dana. Dr. Wood Jones collected two representative pieces of one colony 

 in Cocos-Keeling, after having photographed the entire corallum. Two conditions 

 of the calices as figured by Gardiner (op. cit., plate 89, figs. 1 and 2) are represented. 

 The columella in the lateral calices is often either strongly compressed and lamel- 

 late or a thickish twisted knob, as is shown in Gardiner's figure 2. A description of 

 the species seems unnecessary. 



Habitat and color, Cocos-Keeling Islands. — Dr. F. Wood Jones furnished the 

 following notes: 



"From lagoon edge of the barrier between Pulu Bras and Pulu Gangsa, where it is 

 abundant; but the species is by no means generally distributed in the atoll and is on the 

 whole rare. This is one of the palest corals, being nearly white while alive. The exposed 

 portion of the zooid is sulphur yellow." 



Distribution. — Maldives; Cocos-Keeling Islands. 



Pavona varians (Verrill). 



Plate 57, figures 1, la, 2, 2a, specimens from Murray Islands; figure 3, specimen from Cocos-Keeling Islands; figures 

 4, 4a, specimen from Fanning Island. Also plate 18, figure 44, of Dr. Mayer's article. 



1864. Pavonia varians Verrill, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. I, p. 55. 



1877. Lophoseris ripens Brueggemann, Abhandl. nat. Vereins Bremen, vol. 5, p. 395, plate 7, fig. I. 



1879. Pavonia ripens Klunzinger, Korall. Roth. Meer., pt. 3, p. 75, plate 9, fig. 3 



1N98. Pavonia ripens Gardiner, Proc. Zool. Soc. London for 1898, p. 531, plate 44, fig. 2. 



1898. Pavonia intermedia Gardiner, Proc. Zool. Soc. London for 1S98, p. 531, plate 44, fig. 3. 



1898. Pavonia calicifera Gardiner, Proc. Zool. Soc. London for 1898, p. 532, plate 44, fig. 4. 



1905. Pavonia repens Gardiner, Fauna and Geogr. Maldive and Laccadive Arch., vol. 2, sup. I, p. 946, 



plate 90, figs. 9-11. 

 1907. Pavona varians Vaughan. U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 59, p. 135, plate 38, figs. I, la 

 1910. Pavonia Wood Jones, Coral and Atolls, p. 74, text-fig. 12. 



There are four specimens from Murray Island and two fragments from Cocos- 

 Keeling Islands. 



Gardiner has given so detailed a description of P. repens that here it is only 

 necessary to add a few notes and make comparison with P. varians Verrill. The 

 Murray Island specimens show individual non-serial corallites and serial corallites 

 in the same colony. Therefore, as Gardiner pointed out in 1904, his P. calicifera 

 and P. intermedia are synonyms of P. repens (Brueg.), and all, in my opinion, are 

 synonyms of P. varians Verrill. The close affinities of P. varians and P. repens 

 were noted by me in my memoir on the Hawaiian Madreporaria (p. 135). The 

 crests in the former average greater in development, and are thicker, taller, and 

 less acute; the calices are smaller, there are fewer septa, and the columella is often 

 absent. The characters are fairly well shown on the figures I published of P. varians 

 (pp. cit., plate 38, figs. I, la), but the two intergrade. As varians is the older 

 name, it is the proper one to apply to the species. 



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



800 feet from shore, in water 1 1 inches deep; bottom hard, rocky. 



830 feet from shore, in water 14 inches deep at lowest tide; hard bottom of living coral. 



■U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 59, p. 136, 1907. 



