MISCELLANEA. 



COELENTERATES. 



Note on the genus Anactinia. — In 1909, there appeared in 

 this Journal, Vol. Ill, pages 157-162, a paper by Dr. Annandale, 

 under the heading ''A pelagic sea-anemone without tentacles." 

 The paper concluded by establishing a new genus and new species 

 Anacti)iia pe!agica, for the reception of the animal described 

 therein. Dr. Pax in his reference to the paper in the Zoologisches 

 Zentralblatt, Vol. XVII, 1910, pp. 299-300, regarded the animal 

 as identical with a pelagic larva which, he had previously des- 

 cribed in 1908, and had no doubt as to the larval nature of 

 Anactinia. The specimens described by Dr. Annandale were 

 obtained by him at Puri on the Orissa coast of the Bay of Bengal 

 in February 1909. Similar specimens had been obtained by me 

 m previous years at Madras, in February and March in the tow-net 

 and had attracted my attention, among other features, by their 

 large size; but I took them to be pelagic Cerianthid larvae and 

 did not subject them to any special examination. Since leading 

 Dr. Annandale's paper, however, I began to attach some impor- 

 tance and fresh interest to them ; and I have been hoping to 

 subject them to observation especially with the view to determine 

 whether they are really larvae or adults. A couple of specimens 

 obtained last year were kept in sea-water ; while one of them 

 gradually dwindled and died, the other after some days meta- 

 morphosed into a form with tentacles. This lived for about a 

 month or so and then was unfortunately lost sight of. This year 

 I have obtained several specimens, and am keeping them alive. 

 Already five of them have gone through their metamorphosis and 

 the tentacled forms now rest, on the bottom of the glass. I have 

 also got living a specimen which I got in the tow- net some time in 

 September of last year. This specimen has now got thirty-nine 

 marginal tentacles and is a Cerianthus {sensu lato). When fully 

 stretched at feeding time, it measures five inches in length 

 without the tentacles, and has a cross-diameter of half an inch ; 

 ordinarily when it is not so extended, it measures about three 

 and a half inches in length. A comparison of the external features 

 of this and the other specimens recently obtained from the larvae 

 points to their identity. There can in any case be no doubt 

 that the specimens obtained by Dr. Annandale and myself are 

 larvae, and that the most important character on which the 

 genus is based, viz. the absence of tentacles, is a purely larval 

 feature. 



I have not yet d issected any of the specimens ; but when 

 the necessary literature is received I hope to determine the 



