THE ALCYONARIA OF THE MALDIVES. 



PART III. THE FAMILIES MURICEIDAE, GORGONELLIDAE, MELI- 

 TODIDAE, AND THE GENERA PENNATULA, EUNEPHTHYA 



By Sydney J. Hickson, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S., Beyer Professor of Zoology in the 



Victoria University of Manchester. 



(With Plate LXVII.) 



Our knowledge of the Alcyonarian fauna of the Indian Ocean is very imperfect. It is 

 true that Gray, Milne-Edwards and Haime and many other writers of the earlier part 

 of the last century have described species from the " East Indies," but the descriptions are 

 in most cases so supei-ficial and the localities given so vague or doubtful that their records 

 are of very little value. 



The only modem paper on the subject is that by Ridley (17) on the Alcyonaria of the 

 Mergui archipelago. Neither the "Astrolabe," "Alert," the "Challenger," nor the "Gazelle" 

 visited the district, and the Alcyonarians collected by the naturalists of the "Investigator" 

 have not yet been described. 



It is not sui-jDrising therefore that of the thirteen species of Gorgonacea described in this 

 memoir from the Maldives no less than six appear to be new to Science. The classification 

 of the Gorgonacea is still in a very unsatisfactory condition, but a thorough investigation 

 of the anatomy of some of the leading genera is necessary before it can be placed on a more 

 scientific basis. In the mean time I have decided to adopt as closely as possible the classifi- 

 cation used by the authors of the Challenger volume on the Alcyonaria. 



According to that classification then the Gorgonacea collected by Mr Gardiner belong 

 to the families Briareidae, Melitodidae, Muriceidae and Gorgonellidae. The important families 

 of Gorgonacea which, according to this classification, are not represented in the collection, are 

 the Sclerogorgiidae, Coralliidae, Dasygorgidae, Isidae, Primnoidae^ , Plexauridae and Gorgoniidae. 



The absence of any precious corals may have been disappointing but not surprising, as 

 the family seems to be confined to regions of cooler water than that of the Maldives. The 

 only statement we have concerning the occurrence of the precious coral in Indian seas is that 

 made by Alcock (i. p. 291), "At one spot, not far from Trincomalee, M'Ai-dle found 

 abundance of a beautiful pink coral which appears to be identical with the precious coral." 



The absence of Primnoidae^ and Dasygorgiidae is not surprising, as the members of these 

 families are with a few exceptions usually found in deeper water than any investigated 



1 As I wag correcting the proofs of this paper Mr Gardiner laris (W. and S.) discovered by the Challenger in 600 fathoms 

 sent me a fragment (2.5 mm. long) of a Primnoid from Mahlos off the Kermadecs. 

 Atoll, 24 fathoms. It is closely related to Stachyodes regu- 



G. II. 104 



