THE ALCYONAPJA OF THE MALDIVES. 



PART I. 



THE GENERA XENIA, TELESTO, SPONGODES, NEPHTHYA, 

 PARASPONGODES, CHIRONEPHTHYA, SIPHONOGORGIA, 

 SOLENOCAULON, AND MELITODES. 



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



Oivens College, Manchester. 



(With Plates XXVI and XXVII.) 

 INTRODUCTION. 



This collection of Alcyonaria from the Maldive archipelago is of more than ordinary 

 interest. In most cases the species of Alcyonaria have been founded on a single specimen 

 obtained from a single dredging or on two or three specimens obtained from a single 

 locality. The interest of the present collection lies in the fact that specimens were obtained 

 from a considerable number of dredgings made in several of the atolls or off the reefs 

 of a very extensive archipelago, and consequently an opportunity is afforded for the study 

 of the variation of form, colour, and other features within the limits of a wide area. I 

 have no hesitation in saying that the general impression gained by the study of single 

 specimens of the different genera from a reef is usually an erroneous one, because it cannot 

 give due weight to the important facts of the possible variations of a species living in 

 surroundings and under conditions which are, wthin certain limits, identical. If we were 

 to take at random, for example, a specimen of Tuhipora from the reef off N. Celebes, and 

 compare it with another specimen taken at random from the reef at Ternate, it is probable 

 that so many differences would be found in the shape of the colony, the size of the 

 tubes, the distance of the platforms, etc. in the two specimens that it would be thought 

 necessary to make two species, one for the Celebes specimen and one for the Ternate 

 specimen ; but anyone who walks along the N. Celebes reefs at low tide will find in one 

 morning not only the reputed Ternate species but a complete series leading from that up 

 to the reputed Celebes species, and beyond it. 



When I went out to Celebes the first thing I did was to collect specimens of 

 Tuhipora, having already obtained a knowledge of the genus in Europe from books and 

 museums, but the conclusion I came to was that there is only one species which varies 

 on the one reef within limits almost as wide as the limits of all the hitherto described 

 species of the genus. 



G. II. 61 



