MENIPEA 333 



2. Menipea patagonica Busk. Plate V, figs. 1,2; Fig. 6 A. 



Menipea patagonica Busk, 18526, p. 22, pi. xxv, figs. 1-3, pi. xxvi, figs. 1, 2 [not pi. xxiii, 

 fig. 1 = Tricellaria aculeata]; Busk, 1879, P- I 94! Jullien, 1888, p. 71; Calvet, 1904, p. 5; 

 Harmer, 1923, p. 341 ; Vallentin, 1924, p. 373. 



Scrupocellaria patagonica Kluge, 19 14, p. 615, text-fig. 4. 



Menipea obtusa Hasenbank, 1932, p. 370, text-fig. 34 A-D. 



Cellularia cirrata Busk, 1879, p. 194 (not Cellaria cirrata Ellis and Solander). 



Station distribution. Sub- Antarctic: South Atlantic Ocean, Sts. 222, WS 72, WS 84, WS 87. 

 Antarctic: Weddell Quadrant, Sts. 145, WS 25, WS 56, MS 65. 



Geographical distribution. Magellanic Region (Jullien; Calvet; Hamburg Museum, B. 830, 

 B. 979, B. 1205; Discovery); Patagonian Shelf (Busk; Vallentin; Hamburg Museum, B. 812; 

 U.S. National Museum; Discovery); Kerguelen (Busk; Kluge); South Georgia (Hamburg Museum, 

 B. 782 ; Discovery) ; Bouvet Island (Hasenbank). 



This species is not known from New Zealand, and is included erroneously in 

 Hutton's list of New Zealand Polyzoa (1904, p. 294), the locality not being given in the 

 work quoted by Hutton. 



Zooecia with more than two spines are rare, but in most colonies there are a few 

 internodes which have two outer distal spines on the second of the six zooecia. The 

 extra spine takes the place of the marginal avicularium. 



As noticed by Busk, there is considerable variation in the shape of the zooecia, slender 

 ones predominating in some colonies. Enlarged marginal avicularia may be almost 

 completely absent from these slender colonies. Colonies are also found in which the 

 more proximal zooecia are very large and long, in quite marked contrast to those com- 

 posing the more distal branches. The colony from St. WS 72 consists of slender feathery 

 branches, the rest of the Discovery specimens being more shrubby (cf. figs. 1, 2, 

 Plate V). The distal internodes may consist of more than the six zooecia supposed to be 

 characteristic of the species. This is seen in several Falkland Island specimens and in 

 some of Busk's specimens from Kerguelen. Such a branch may end in a biserial inter- 

 node of as many as five pairs of rather short zooecia (St. WS 72, Falkland Islands). 

 Internodes of either kind may be fertile. The embryo develops in an ovisac in a zooecium 

 whose polypide eventually degenerates. In the earliest stage seen (South Georgia, 

 Hamburg Museum, B. 782), the ovary consists of two fairly small eggs, embedded in a 

 small quantity of tissue, lying in the distal part of the zooecium. One of them increases 

 in size while the other remains almost unchanged and a follicle is formed about them 

 both. Later stages can be seen in another specimen from South Georgia (September 

 1892, Hamburg Museum, B. 979). The embryos are in advanced stages of segmentation 

 and some are beginning to assume the larval form, the epithelium of the sucker and, 

 where the larva is in a suitable position, the groove of the pyriform organ being visible. 

 The ovisacs are conspicuous, and some are empty. Some polypides are present, but the 

 majority of the zooecia contain brown bodies. Some of the zooecia with an embryo or 

 an empty ovisac also contain one or two small eggs, or one rather larger egg in a follicle, 

 occupying the proximal part of the body cavity. The material taken at St. 145 in January 

 1927 is at a more advanced stage. Segmentation stages are absent, and polypides are 



