1 98 N. Annandale : The Fauna of Brackish Ponds. [VOL. I, 



POLYZOA. 



Numerous statoblasts of Plumatella were found floating on 

 the surface of the ponds in July, together with gemmules of Spon- 

 gilla alba ; but as a very careful search failed to reveal living colonies 

 of Phylactolaematous Polyzoa at any season in the ponds, it is 

 probable that the statoblasts had been brought from freshwater 

 tanks in the vicinity b}'- wind or by flood. The only Polyzoa taken 

 recently in the ponds in an active condition are Ctenostomes, viz., 

 Victorella pavida and Bowerhankia caudata ; but the type specimens 

 of Membranipora bengalensis , which are still in the Indian Museum, 

 were collected from brackish ponds in the neighbourhood by the 

 late Dr. Stoliczka thirty-nine years ago. Miss L. Thornely {Rec. 

 Ind. Mus., i, p. i86) has recently examined specimens from Mer- 

 gui, and I have nothing to add to her report, which is published 

 in this number of the Records of the Indian Museum, except to sa}' 

 that I have been unable to identif}^ in Stoliczka's types the " sta- 

 toblasts " to which he refers (/own? . Asiat. Soc. Bengal (2), 1869, 

 p. 58). It seems probable from his figures and description that 

 what he saw were polypides in different stages of development 

 from brown bodies, together with unripe gonads. In some species 

 the gonads are well developed, after the formation of a brown body, 

 while the new polypide is still in a very rudimentary condition. 



Family PaludiceIvUD^. 



Ctenostomes that die down in unfavourable conditions after the 

 production of resting buds, which differ in form from the zooecia 

 and are enclosed in an impermeable substance resembling 

 chitin. Zooecia tubular, arising either directly from another 

 zooecia, or from tubular outgrowths from the sides of other 

 zooecia, or from a false stolon. The false stolon consists of 

 tubular prolongations of the base of each zooecium, neither 

 the false stolon nor the tubular outgrowths being always pres- 

 ent. Funiculus well developed ; gizzard feebly muscular. 



I follow Jullien {Btdl. Zool. Soc. France, x, p. 174, 1885) in 

 regarding Paludicella Gervais as the type of a family, to which, 

 in my opinion, Victorella and, if it be generically distinct, Pot- 

 siella also belong. I have, however, given a new definition of this 

 family, in order to lay stress on the feature that seems to me most 

 important, viz., the production of the so-called hibernacula in 

 unfavourable conditions. The term hibernacula is, however, mis- 

 leading, for the structures it is intended to describe are formed 

 in India in summer and spring. They do not appear to have 

 been hitherto described in the case of Victorella, as the " winter 

 buds " that several authors have noted in this genus are buds 

 very much like the ordinary zooecia. As regards the position of 

 Paludicella and its allies, if the}^ are to be regarded as a distinct 

 family, they are intermediate between the Stolonifera and the 

 astoloniferous families of the Ctenostomes. As I have already 



