PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol. 101 Washington: 1951 No_ 3276 



A NEW CARIBBEAN CORAL OF THE GENUS 

 CHRYSOGORGIA 



By F^REDERicK M. Bayer 



The cruises of the United States Fish Commission steamer Albatross 

 in the western Atlantic Ocean yielded many interesting species of 

 alcyonarian corals, many of which are still to be studied. Among 

 these is a most unusual cluysogorgid from the Caribbean Sea, quite 

 unlike anything previously recorded from that area, or indeed from 

 any other. 



CHRYSOGORGIA ELISABETHAE, new speciea 



Figures 56, 57; Plate 9 



The colony is small, 65 mm. in height and 45 mm. in spread, attached 

 by a small, white calcareous basal disk to a shell of the mollusk 

 Tugurium caribaeum (Petit). The main stem of the colony makes a 

 sudden change in direction at a point 6.5 mm. from the base, at the 

 first branch origin; beyond this point its direction remains unchanged, 

 giving off branches in a right-handed spiral that approximates the 2/5 

 arrangement. The branches arise at close intervals, the stem inter- 

 nodes being approximately 2 mm. long. The branches subdivide 

 dichotomously as many as eight times, in various planes, so that the 

 colony is quite bushy. The internodes of the branches are 4-5 mm. 

 long except the distal one, which may be shorter. The main stem is 

 about 1 mm. in diameter, the branches about 0.75 mm. in the first 

 internode and 0.5 in the third. Each branch internode bears a single 

 zooid, and none is present on the stem. Nematozooids appear to be 

 lacking. The axis of the alcoholic type is brown near the base, paling 



895336—51 269 



