60 



BULLETIN 104; UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM, 



In all the Albatross material I have examined the species has oc- 

 curred at but three stations. These were of the typical elongate 

 form figured by Brady. It is of interest that Flint does not record 

 the species in his work on the Albatross material, showing with the 

 few records I have been able to secure, that it is certainly rare on 

 this side of the Atlantic so far as this material shows. The specimens 

 from D2205 are ver}^ white and the material of which they are com- 

 posed is very fine, at least on the surface, which is coated with a thin 

 coating of fine amorphous material in most specimens. In only one 

 of the specimens is there a coating of sand grains. Except in this 

 last specimen, the spicules of the surface are entirely concealed by 

 the fine white coating similar to that seen in Pilulina jeffreysii. 



Technitella lequmen — material examined. 



TECHNITELLA MELO Norman. 



Plate 16, fig. 6. 



Technitella melo Norman Anu. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 5, vol. 1, 1878, p. 280, pi. 16, 

 figs. 5, 6.— H. B. Brady, Rep. Voy. Challenger, Zoology, vol. 9, 1884, p. 246, 

 pi. 25, figs. 7a, b. — Chapman, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1895, p. 12. — 

 Rhumbler, Arch. Prot., vol. 3, 1903, p. 256, figs. 95a, b (in text). — Heron- 

 Allen and Earland, Journ. Quekett Micr. Club, ser. 2, vol. 10, 1909, pi. 

 34, fig. 9.— CusHMAN, Bull. 71, U. S. Nat. Mus., pt. 1, 1910. p. 48, fig. 54 (in 

 text). 



Description. — Test free, oval, slightly fusiform and tapering at the 

 ends, with a single undivided chamber wall composed almost en- 

 tirely of sponge spicules longitudinally placed and firmly united with 

 a whitish cement; aperture small, terminal, circular, occasionally with 

 a slight neck; color white or grayish. 



Length, 1.4 mm.; diameter, 1 mm. 



Distribution. — This species is even more rare than the preceding. 

 In the Atlantic it is known from south of the Rockall Bank, 1,215 

 fathoms (Norman); Gulf of Gascon}^ (Rhumbler); South Atlantic, 

 Challenger station 344, off Ascension Island, 420 fathoms (Brady). 

 Outside it is known from the Laccadives, Arabian Sea (Chapman), 

 and Challenger station 237, in 1,875 fathoms, east of Japan (Brady). 



This is a very scattered distribution, the small size and apparent 

 rarity at any particular station being sufficient to account for the 

 few records. 



