552 BULLETIN 100, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



There is one feature, however, to which it is necessary to call the 

 attention, namely, the difficulty of zoarial equilibrium. Our photo- 

 graphs of the bases show the extreme small size of the substratum 

 which is always a dead body without a single hydrostatic faculty 

 and in consequence abandoned laws of gravity; in the water it 

 weighs almost nothing. The colony must then assure its own 

 equilibrium by the arrangement of its branches and the rapidity of 

 its development. Although the zoarium is thick, much calcified and 

 relatively heavy, it is very difficult to assure its equilibrium a long 

 time on the bottoms traversed by even feeble currents. Species of 

 Eornera appear to escape destruction only by their great fecundity. 

 Occurrence. — 



D. 5141. Jolo Light, Jolo; 6° 09' N.; 120° 58' E.; 29 fathoms; 



co. S. 

 D. 5147. Sulade Island, Sum Archipelago; 5° 41' 40" N.; 120° 



47' 10" E.; 21 fathoms; co. S., Sh. 

 D. 5151. Sirun Island, Sulu Archipelago; 5° 24' 40" N.; 120° 



27' 15" E.; 24 fathoms; co. S., Sh. (common). 

 D. 5478. Tacbuc Point, Leyte; 10° 46' 24" N.; 125° 16' 30" E.; 



57 fathoms; Sh. (common). 

 D. 5577. Mount Dromedario, north of Tawi Tawi; 5° 20' 36" 



N.; 119° 58' 51" E.; 240 fathoms; crs. S. 



D. 5579. Sibutu Island, Darvel Bay, Borneo; 4° 54' 15" N.; 



119° 09' 53" E.; 175 fathoms; fine S., Co.; 13° C. 



D. 5580. Sibutu Island, Darvel Bay, Borneo; 4° 52' 45" N.; 



119° 06' 45" E.; 162 fathoms; br. S., co.; 13.2° C. 



Cotypes.— Cat. Nos. 8405-8407, U.S.N.M. 



Family ASCOSOECIIDAE Canu, 1919 



Genus POLYASCOSOECIA Canu and Bassler, 1920 



POLYASCOSOECIA FUNICULA, new species 



Plate 87, figs. 1-7 



Description. — The zoarium is free, triangular in cross section, affixed 

 to Serpulae or to shells by a small base; the branches are dichotomous 

 and ramified at a very acute angle. The dorsal is broader than the 

 frontal. It is quite convex and ornamented longitudinally with shal- 

 low sulci at the bottom of which are numerous, very closely arranged 

 vacuoles. All the branches bear a wide, longitudinal, smooth median 

 crest in the form of a cord (or funiculus) . The tubes are indistinct 

 and quite porous; the peristomes are thin, somewhat salient, grouped 

 in series of three tubes, transverse and alternate on each side of the 

 funiculus. The ovicell is a very salient globular sac, quite porous, 

 located on the funiculus and perforated laterally by the peristomes. 



Measurements. — Diameter of peristome, 0.08 mm.; separation of 

 lines (without peristomes), 0.24; and width of large branches, 1.00. 



