92 BULLETIN 104, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Tolypammina vagans Rhumbler, Nachr. Kongl. Ges. Wiss. Gottingen, 1895, 

 p. 83; Zeitschr. Allg. Phys., vol. 2, 1902, p. 281, fig. 97; Arch. Prot., vol. 3, 

 1903, p. 277, figs. 125a, b (in text).— Cushman, Bull. 71, U. S. Nat. Mus., pt. 1, 

 1910, p. 67, figs. 84, 85 (in text). — Pearcey, Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, 

 vol. 49, 1914, p. 1004. 



Serpulella vagans Eimer and Fickert, Zeitschr. Wiss. Zool., vol. 65, 1899, p. 674. 



Girvanella vagans RhumbleRj Foram. Plankton Exped., pt. 1, 1911, pi. 4, figs. 

 1, 2; pt. 2, 1913, p. 419. 



Description. — ^Test adherent, consisting of an oval-elongate pro- 

 loculum and a long irregularly winding tube of nearly uniform diam- 

 eter, unbranched; wall composed of sand grains of small size with an 

 abundance of reddish-brown cement; surface smooth, both without 

 and within, aperture formed by the open end of the tubular cham- 

 ber; color reddish brown, except the growing tip, which is occasion- 

 ally lighter, the proloculum often darker than the second chamber. 



Diameter of tube, 0.05 to 0.2 mm.; length, 1 mm. or much more if 

 the coils were straightened out. 



Distribution. — From all the records obtainable this is a very widely 

 distributed species, in the colder Arctic waters occurring in a few 

 fathoms (Brady) to 3,800 fathoms in the Challenger North Pacific 

 material. It is known from the Arctic, from the North Sea and 

 about the British Isles, and from deep water of the Atlantic, on the 

 western side recorded by Flint from the Gulf of Mexico. It is 

 known from the Pacific (Brady, Cushman) and from the Antarctic 

 (Pearcey) . 



In the Albatross material I have examined, it has occurred at 36 

 stations from the latitude of Georges Banks southward along the 

 coast, in the GuH of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, north of Panama 

 and just westward of the Lesser Antilles, and off the coast of Brazil. 

 These stations range in depth from 159 to 1,769 fathoms, bottom 

 temperatures from 36.9° to 51.6° F., the highest in the Gulf of Mexico, 

 in depths less than 200 fathoms 



There has been much shifting of this species, but it now seems that 

 Rhumbler is correct in assigning it to Girvanella, a genus described 

 in 1878 by Nicholson and Etheridge for fossil specimens before Hyper- 

 ammina was described by Brady in 1879. As this species had aheady 

 been distinguished from Hyperammina by later authors it need not 

 affect the standing of the other species still placed under that genus, 

 unless by those authors who still persist in placing 0. vagans under 

 Hyperammina. In such a case they are compelled by rules of nomen- 

 clature to use Girvanella for the whole genus, unless they reject the 

 afl&nity of the fossil material. 



From the closeness of this genus in the construction of the waU 

 and its general characters, especially those of G. scliaudinii and G. 

 frigida, where the coihng is more regular, it seems advisable to fol- 

 low Rhumbler and place these species under the subfamily Ammo- 

 discinae, treating Girvanella as an uncoiled or irregular form with 

 affinities with Ammodiscus and related genera. 



