92 UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 251 



Michaelsen (1924) on Leytoclinides sparsus, from New Zealand, and 

 also to that given by Hastings (1931) as the result of reexamination of 

 the specimen of Didemnum reticuUitum from sta. 37 of the Siboga 

 Expedition. Sluiter's original description reports that the zooids in 

 his specimens are very small, about 0.6 mm. in length, which is much 

 smaller than in the present specimens. Probably his measurement was 

 made on strongly contracted or bent zooids. Diderrvnum, albojmncta- 

 tum from the Sihoga area also very closely resembles the present spe- 

 cies in the appearance of the colony. If the type of this Malay 

 species is reexamined with attention to the structure of zooids, then 

 the relation between it and the present species will be definitely 

 clarified. 



35. Leptoclinides hatvaiiensis, new species 



Figures SOh-j 



HoLOTYPE.— USNM 11792: French Frigate Shoal, Hawaiian 

 Islands; 23°45'50" N., 166°20'50'' W., 17-17.5 fath., coarse sand, 

 shells, coral ; Albatross sta. 3970, May 29, 1902. 



Paratypes. — USNM 11793 : Auau Chamiel between Maui and Lanai, 

 off Mokuhooniki Islet, N. 3° E., 16.6 mi., 43-32 fath., yellow sand, 

 pebbles, coral; Albatross sta. 3872, April 12, 1902. Two specimens 

 (USNM 11793). 



Description. — Three colonies from the Hawaiian Islands were ex- 

 amined ; two smaller ones, 11 mm. X 9 mm. and 15 mm. X 12 mm. in 

 extent and 9-12 mm. in height, are massive or nearly globular in shape, 

 while the largest is encrusted and measures 35 mm, X 23 mm. in extent 

 and 4 mm. in thickness. They are brownish, grayish brown or dark 

 purplish brown in color; surface smooth in two smaller specimens, but 

 rather uneven in the other, the milky white and translucent test irregu- 

 larly ridged on the surface. Test hard, gelatinous, and comparatively 

 tough, though translucent and contains many bladder cells. Purplish- 

 brown pigment cells found densely scattered throughout the whole 

 zoodial stratum or in the thoracic layer of the stratum, but extremely 

 scarce in other layers or parts of the colony which are milky white or 

 pale grayish brown. Spicules found only in the largest colony, the 

 holotype (USNM 11792), extraordinarily large, up to 100-176/a in di- 

 ameter in larger ones, and distributed rather sparsely in only the un- 

 pigmented layers lower than the abdominal layer of the zoodial stra- 

 tum. About 12 rays on the equatorial plane, may be fairly long and 

 with the pointed tip in some perfectly preserved spicules. One of the 

 colonies, the paratype (USNM 11793), contains crystalline needles in 

 the test, while the other includes neither spicules nor needles in the 

 test. Hypozoodial lacunae well developed. A small common cloacal 

 aperture 0.9 mm. in diameter found at top of 15 mm. X 12 mm. colony. 

 No distinct system found in arrangement of zooids. 



