FORAMINIFEEA OF THE ATLANTIC OCEAN- 85 



Test in the early stages planispiral, close coiled, the coils of fairly 

 even diameter, later the height of the coil expanding and in the adult 

 with long branching or flattened peripheral extensions; interior not 

 divided into distinct chambers; wall calcareous, imperforate, with 

 depressed Hnes of growth on the exterior; aperture in the adult elon- 

 gate, narrow, at the ends of the peripheral portions. 



Recent. Atlantic. 



As noted by Heron-Allen and Earland, this is to be considered a 

 specialized form and representing an end form in the Cornuspira-\ike 

 series. 



CORNUSPIRELLA DIFFUSA (Heron-Allen and Earland) 



Plate 21, Figures 6,7 



Cornuspira foliacea H. B. Brady (not Philippi), Rept. Voy. Challenger, 



Zoology, vol. 9, 1884, pi. 11, fig. 7. — Rhumbler, Arch. Prot., vol. 3, 1903, 



p. 287, fig. 141& in text. 

 Cornuspira diffusa Heron-Allen and Earland, Journ. Roy. Micr. Soc, 



1913, p. 272, pi. 12; Proc. Roy. Irish Acad., vol. 31, pt. 64, 1913, p. 37; 



Trans. Linn. Soc. London, ser. 2, vol. 11, 1916, p. 217; British Antarctic 



Exped., Zool., vol. 6, 1922, p. 74. 

 Cornuspirella diffusa Cushman, Contr. Cushman Lab. Foram. Res., vol. 4, 



pt. 1, 1928, p. 4, pi. 1, fig. 14; Special Publ. No. 1, Cushman Lab. Foram. 



Res., 1928, p. 161, pi. 53, figs. 16, 17. 



Test in the early stages planispiral, close coiled, tubular, undivided, 

 of fairly even diameter; later the height of the coil expanding, in the 

 adult developing irregular branching extensions from the periphery; 

 wall calcareous, imperforate, marked distinctly by depressed lines of 

 growth on the exterior; aperture in the early coiled stage elongate, 

 narrow, at the end of the coil, in the adult elongate, narrow, at the 

 ends of the peripheral portions. 



From the figures given, the diameter may be 5 millimeters or more 

 in the branching adult form. The following notes are from the 

 original paper by Heron-Allen and Earland. 



Cornuspira diffusa is probably widely distributed in moderately deep water, 

 on muddy bottoms, to which it appears to be everywhere confined. In addition 

 to the few specimens first seen in Mr. Joseph Wright's dredging from Kenmare 

 River, County Kerry (40 fathoms), we have met with occasional fragments of 

 small size in dredgings from the area of the Clare Island (County Mayo) survey 

 and in a shore sand from Llanfihangel-y-Traethau, in Wales. 



Round the Scottish coast it is of wider distribution, occurring more or less 

 frequently at many " Goldseeker" stations round the west coast and in Orkney 

 and Shetland. But the species reaches its greatest development both as regard 

 size and abundance in the fine ooze which covers the bottom in the central area 

 of the Scottish North Sea. At some of these stations fragments of all shapes 

 and sizes are of frequent occurence, notably at station xliA (Lat. 56° 48' N., 

 Long. 1° 19' E.), 94 meters, where the specimens were particularly abundant. 

 Remarkably fine specimens were also obtained at the "Huxley" Station 25 

 (5° 34' N., 3° 53' E.), in 37 fathoms to the south of the Inner Shoal and Great 

 Fisher Bank in the North sea. The organism, however, is so extremely fragile 

 that Earland did not succeed in obtaining a single perfect specimen, although at 



