A. n. t li o z o a. 



10. Mopsea borealis. M. Sars. 



n. sp. 

 (PI. V. fig. 1—2.3). 



The group of coral animals which Ehrenberg^ has established as a peculiar family 

 under the name of Isidea, and which Milne Edwards^ has taken in a somewhat narrower limi- 

 tation, excluding the genus Corallium as a peculiar group, and considering the 3 other genera 

 (Isis, Mopsea and Melithrea) as forming a sub-family (Isidinse) of his family Gorgouidse, com- 

 prises only tropical forms, with the exception of one single species, namely Mopsea elougata 

 (Isis) Esper, which is found in the Mediterranean. It was therefore highly surprising for 

 me to find a form belonging to this group living near our coast, and even within the Arctic 

 circle, namely at the fishing place Skraaven at Lofoten, where in the year 1866 I drew up 

 in the dredge from the depth of 300 fathoms, a very young bnt quite entire specimen. The 

 specimen, which is represented in fig. 6, was completely imdivided, or only forming a single 

 stem strongly sinuous at the base, on the exterior half of which the polyps were attached, 

 while the lower part was sterile and widened at the end to a funnel-shaped 4-bladed root. 

 My Father as well as myself thought at the time that we had before us a constantly simple 

 or unbranched form, which although distinctly stamped as an Isidin by its jointed axis and 

 peculiar root, yet shewed a remarkable affinity to the Pennatulidie, and therefore seemed 

 entitled to be considered as a type of a peculiar genus, which my Father named Isidella. 

 But the next year I found some exemplars which shewed that the present form, like the other 

 Isidiufe, can be branched; although the branches here appear to be unusually few in number 

 and never again divided. As our coral agrees otherwise in all essential points with the genus 

 Mopsea established by Lamouroux, there can be no objection to refer it to that genus, which 

 is thus represented in the tropical seas, in the Mediterranean and in the Arctic seas. It was 

 also named by my Father, under the above appellation (Mopsea borealis) in his list of deep- 

 sea animals inserted in the Christiania Videnskabs-Selskabs Forhandlinger for 1868. 



The largest tolerably entire specimen of mine (tig. 4) is 8.5 Mm. high. At the distance 

 of about 20 Mm. from the root, there proceeds at' an acute angle a branch, which was however 



' Curullinlhiuri' dcs ictlieii Jlrcres. py. 130. 



' Histuire niiturelle de^ Cornlliaires, Vol. !. pg. 19'2. 



