246 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



Ghirardelli (1950) found both varieties of S. lyra in the Mediterranean and informally applied the 

 trinomial S. lyra typica to the form shown in his fig. 2 which appears to be identical with the S. lyra 

 "lyra" -type Tokioka, and in a later paper has used the trinomial S. lyra gazellae to describe 5. lyra 

 "gazellae" -type Tokioka. 



Furnestin (1953), in her report on the Mediterranean collections of the 'Theodor Tissier ', has gone 

 a stage further and formally returned to two separate species S. lyra ( = S. lyra "lyra" -type Tokioka, 

 Thomson = 5. lyra typica Ghirardelli) and S. gazellae ( = S. lyra "gazellae" -type Tokioka, Thomson 

 = S. lyra gazellae Ghirardelli). As I shall show, S. gazellae Ritter-Zahony is a separate species and thus 

 the name is preoccupied. The presence of 'intermediate types' recorded by Tokioka and Thomson 

 which link the extremes of variation in S. lyra suggests that considerably more investigation will be 

 needed before a decision can be reached as to whether the two extremes of variation in S. lyra may 

 be regarded as separate species. 



It is now pertinent to examine the characters which have led some previous authors to consider 

 S. lyra and S. gazellae as separate species ; these are summarized in Table 7. 



Table 7. A comparison of Sagitta lyra and S. gazellae according to previous publications 



DIAGNOSTIC CHARACTERS FROM PUBLISHED DESCRIPTIONS 

 Hooks. The significance of the shape of the base of the hooks of S. lyra and S. gazellae has been 

 extensively discussed by Tokioka (1939) and Ghirardelli (1950) ; they claim that their findings confirm 

 Johnston & Taylor's (1921) opinion that the shape of the base of the hooks has no specific value. 

 However, examination of Johnston & Taylor's report reveals that the opinion was based upon a mis- 

 understanding of Ritter-Zahony's report. 



Ritter-Zahony (191 1) described and figured a typical hook of S. gazellae and a 'secondary' hook of 

 S. lyra, the former having a simple base, the latter a 'claw '-shaped base (see Fig. 1). On page 9 of his 

 report he stated that the ' secondary ' hooks occurred only in the more mature animals, the hooks of the 

 younger individuals being 'typical', i.e. of the simple 'gazellae' type. On page 12 he recorded that all 

 his specimens of S. gazellae, even the largest (71 mm.), had ' typical ' hooks, whereas ' secondary ' hooks 

 were sometimes found in specimens of 5. lyra measuring as little as 1 5 mm. 



Johnston & Taylor (1921), on page 7, state that 'Ritter-Zahony (191 1, p. 8) said that in older 

 specimens of S. lyra the jaws became claw-shaped. As will be seen from fig. 3 [Fig. 2], the tips of our 

 specimens agree with his description of S. lyra in this respect, while the shaft of the jaw resembles his 

 own figure of S. gazellae (191 1, fig. 7).' Ritter-Zahony did not refer to the tips of the hooks in either 

 S. gazellae or S. lyra, nor do his figures give any indication of claw tips. It appears, therefore, that 



