276 AGALMA. 



name Agalmopsis elegans. It has long been recognized that Sars's A. elegans 

 was a combination of two different species. Indeed this was pointed out by 

 Sars himself in a subsequent publication ('57) and for this reason both Kolliker 

 ('53) and Bedot ('96) have abandoned the name elegans altogether, calling the 

 Agalma (Agalmopsis) constituent of the pair by the second name under which 

 it appeared, A. sarsi Kolliker. Fewkes ('81) and Schneider, on the other hand, 

 retain the name elegans for the Agalma ; and the latter has justified this course 

 on the ground that the Stephanomia constituent had long before been described 

 by Delle Chiaje ('42) as Physsophora bijuga. This identification is apparently 

 well founded (p. 283) ; and the name elegans therefore belongs to Sars's Agalma. 



Besides these two well-known species of Agalma, the following forms must 

 be referretl to it, viz.: — Agalma breve Huxley; A. sarsi Fewkes (non Kolliker); 

 A. clausi Bedot, the type of his genus Stephanopsis ('96); and J., eschscholtzi 

 Haeckel. The first of these may perhaps be a sjaionym of A. okeni, but Huxley's 

 ('59) figures are not sufficiently detailed to show definitely whether this is the 

 case. 



^4. sarsi Fewkes and A. clausi Bedot undoubtedly belong to one species, 

 and fortunately Bedot's ('88) account and figures are sufficiently detailed to 

 give a good idea of its characters. It is readily distinguished from A. okeni 

 by the foliaceous form of the bracts and b,y their red pigment spots, as well as 

 by its large size, and fnjm A. elegans by the stiff non-contractile stem, and the 

 thickness of the siphosome, as well as by minoi' details in the shape of the 

 bracts and of the nectophores. It is likewise the only species of the genus, 

 so far as we know, in which the terminal filaments of the tentilla can be retracted 

 within the involucre. The name clausi must be used for this species instead 

 of the earlier sarsi of Fewkes, because the latter was already preoccupied by 

 Kolliker. 



Schneider ('98, p. 121) has united .4. clausi Bedot and A. eschscholtzi Haeckel 

 inider the name sarsi Fewkes; and there can be no doubt that the two resemble 

 each other closely in genei'al "habitus," as well as in the shapes of the necto- 

 phores and bracts. But inasnuich as the nectophores are pigmented in Haeckel's 

 species, and the bracts are not, while the reverse is true in clausi, it is better 

 to postpone the union of the two until fresh material from the Indian Ocean 

 (the type locality of eschscholtzi is Ceylon) can be studied. 



Haeckel's choice of eschscholtzi as the specific name for his species was 

 unfortunate, because Agalma eschscholtzi had long before been preoccupied by 

 Lesson ('43, p. 511) for a form figured, but not named, by Eschscholtz ('29), 



