ACTINIANS FROM THE BAHAMA ISLANDS 117 



APPENDIX 



Since the above notes were published in 1896 additional observations have 

 shown the advisability of modification of the systematic position assigned to two 

 of the forms described. 



Heteractis lucida was retained in the genus to which Duchassaing and Miche- 

 lotti had referred it thirty years earlier, on account of the peculiar structure of the 

 tentacles. Duerden, 1 however, in 1898, called attention to the fact that the tubercles 

 borne upon the tentacles were equivalent to the bands of nematocysts which occur 

 upon the tentacles of another West Indian form, Aiptasia annulata Lesueur, 

 and consequently assigned it to the same genus, repeating his conclusion that this 

 was its proper position in a subsequent paper. 2 In its other structural peculiari- 

 ties, notably in its weak mesoglceal sphincter, lucida closely resembles other species 

 of Aiptasia, and I now agree with Duerden that it ought to be assigned to that 

 genus. 



The other species which calls for mention is Diplactis bermudensis. My 

 original description of this form was based upon specimens from the Bermudas, 

 and in 1898 Verrill 3 described a form from the same locality which is apparently 

 identical, so far as may be judged from the description of the external form and 

 coloration which is all that Verrill's account includes. Verrill, however, assigns 

 his form to the genus Actinia, naming it A. bermudensis, and this, I now believe, 

 is the position to which my Diplactis bermudensis should also be assigned, its 

 structural peculiarities being more in harmony with those of the genus Actinia 

 than with those of the family Phyllactidae to which I originally assigned it. I have 

 already stated elsewhere my altered opinions on this matter and merely reaffirm 

 them here. 4 The correct name for the species is Actinia bermudensis (McMurrich) 

 Verrill, and it should therefore be referred to the family Actinidas instead of to the 

 Phyllactidae. 



1 Duerden, J. E., "The Actinaria around Jamaica," Journ. Inst, of Jamaica, II, 

 1898, p. 457. 



2 Duerden, J. E., Report on the Actinians of Porto Rico, Bull. U. S. Fish Com. for 

 1900, Vol. 2, p. 355. Washington, 1902. 



3 Verrill, A. E., Descriptions of new American Actinians, with critical notes on 

 other species I. Am. Journ. Sci. (IV), VI, 1898, p. 495. 



4 McMurrich, J. P., "A Revision of the Duchassaing and Michelotti Actinian types 

 in the Museum of Natural History, Turin," Boll. Mus. Zool. ed. Anat. Comp. R. 

 Univ. di Torino, XX. 1905. 



