210 BULLETIN 100, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



SCRUPOCELLARIA FEROX Busk, 1852 



Plate 9, figs. 6, 7 



1852. Scrupocellaria ferox Busk, Catalague Marine Polyzoa, p. 25, pi. 22, figs. 



1, 2, 5. 

 1890. Scrupocellaria cyclostoma Kirkpatrick, Polyzoa. . . China Sea, Annals and 



Magazine of Natural History, ser. 6, vol. 51, p. 16. 

 1913. Scrupocellaria ferox Waters, Zanzibar, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, p. 476, 



pi. 68, figs. 11-15; pi. 69, figs. 7, 20. 

 1926. Scrupocellaria ferox Harmer, Polyzoa "Siboga" Expedition, p. 367, pi. 25, 



figs. 1-6. 



Description.— The zoarium is articulated, the segments are straight 

 or somewhat curved. The zooecia are distinct, separated by a fur- 

 row, large, with a small convex gynmocyst. The exterior opesium is 

 large, oval, the top below; the interior opesium is small, elliptical; no 

 scutum: The mural rim is straight, a little enlarged at the base, and 

 ornamented with two superior spines. The lateral avicularium is 

 quite small, transverse, triangular, placed at the base of the vibracular 

 chamber. The axial avicularia are triangular, with salient and 

 pointed beak. On the dorsal face, the zooecia are little distinct, 

 little oblique, rectangular or somewhat lozenge shaped. The vibra- 

 cular chamber is narrow, erect, little oblique with a groove enlarged 

 at its extremity; the radicular pore is large. 



Measurements. — ■ 



Internal] ho = 0.22-0.24 mm. External iho = 0.40 mm. 



opesium Uo = 0.18-0.20 mm. opesiumlZo = 0.28 mm. 



\Lz = 0.60-0.65 mm. 



ZooeciumL 



Us = 0.34-0.35 mm. 



Width of segment = 0.68 mm. ; length of vibracular chamber = 0.28 mm. 



Structure. — Almost all of our specimens were dead and the few 

 living examples were without the scutum. The size of the interior 

 opesium is ver}^ variable; it is generally smaller at the bottom of the 

 segments. 



The axial avicularium increases in size from the base to the summit 

 of the segments. The worm-like body discovered by Waters, 1913, 

 in some cells considered b}^ him as a testis is according to Harmer, 

 1926, a special development of the funicular tissue. There are very 

 short distal spines on the mural rim. 



Waters gave 24 tentacles and described the degeneration. Harmer, 

 1926, figured the ovieell, the bifurcation, the unguiculate mandible 

 and the axial avicularium. 



The species is well characterized by the large size of the zooecia 

 and its curious frontal avicularium. It lives principally in waters 

 less than 45 meters in depth. It has been dredged only once at a 

 depth of 275 meters in the Sulu Archipelago, where we have not 

 discovered it anew. 



