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with a forni for which he proposes the mime Z. proleus, which also 

 include* Hertwig's Z. danae (1888). 



As Duerden has pointed out, there is nothing in Verrill 's defìnition 

 of his new species which distinguishes it from already recognized 

 forms, and unless its anatomical study should show features decidedly 

 different from those of Z. sociatus, I can see no reason for regarding 

 it as distinct from that form. The division of the column into two 

 regions which occurs in Hertwig 's Z. danae, Verrill finds also in his 

 proleus, but it is not Constant, and if it be disregarded as a distin- 

 guishing figure, there can hardly be doubt that Hertwig 's species, 

 judging from Erdmann's account (1885) of its anatomy, is also identical 

 with my sociatus. 



So far as Lesueur 's description (1817) of his Z. sociatus goes, it 

 answers perfectly for the form I identified with his species, but it is 

 difficult to be certain that it is identical with Ellis' Actinia sodata 

 (1767) ; Lesueur merely suggests that it may be the sanie. Ellis' fi- 

 gure* show about 19 outer tentacles, and if this really represents the 

 correct number, then the mesenteries are 38 and the species is pro- 

 bably the same as Duchassaing and Michelotti 's Z. flosmarinus. But 

 this is too uncertain a foundation upon which to build, and since, 

 owing to its abundance on ali the West Indian islands from which 

 collections have been obtained in recent years, it is presumable that 

 Lesueur \s sociatus would be the form most likely to be observed by 

 Ellis, and, furthermore, since the terni has been applied to a reco- 

 gnizable forni it would merely tend to confusion and add nothing to 

 the permanency of the nomenclature if we decline to regard the 

 species of Ellis and Lesueur as identical. 



Finally it ìs worthy of note that Duchassaing and Michelotti do 

 not describe a Z. sociatus, a rather remarkable fact considering its 

 abundance. Duchassaing (1850) did originally mention a sociatus as 

 occurring in the Antilles, but in the later papers, in conjunction with 

 Michelotti, it is named Z. nobilis, being regarded as distinct from so- 

 ciatus ori account of the greater number and length of its tentacles. 

 The latter point seems hardly of sufficient importance and the number 

 of tentacles, sixty, is the sanie as that given by Lesueur. The figure 

 of nobilis shows its general form to be very simular to sociatus and 

 altogether it seems proper to believe that Duchassaing was correct 

 in his originai identification. 



The terms Ellisii and socialis, also occuring in the literature are 

 manifestly synonyms of sociatus, the synonymy of that species being 

 then as follows : 



Zoanthus sociatus (Ellis) Lsr. 

 Synon : Actinia sociata Ellis, 1767 



