53 



between New York and the West Indies (A. Milne-Edwards, S. I. Smith and W. Faxon). A 

 single specimen has been observed South of Iceland in Lat. 62°47'N. (Hansen). In the N. E. 

 Atlantic numerous specimens have been obtained by the Danish fishery steamer Thor and by 

 the s. s. Helga in the Atlantic trough over an area ranging from the Faroe Islands to the Bay 

 of Biscay (Hansen, Kemp). Three female .specimens, one of which was immature (Systellaspis 

 Bouvieri Cout.), were captured near the Azores (CouTiicRE), while it is recorded by Hansen 

 from the mouth of the English Channel and from off the Brittany coast. This species has been 

 taken by the German Southpolar-expedition 1901 — 1903 west of the Cape Verde Islands and at 

 Lat. 28°42'X., Long. 34°33'\V., but also in the South Atlantic at Lat. 35^39' S., Long. 8° i6'\V., 

 (Lenz and Strunck). 



As already mentioned, a solitary specimen is known from the Pacific, namely from the 

 vicinity of Kauai Island, one of the Hawaiian Islands (Ratiidun). 



Acanthephyra A. M.-Edw. 



The genus Acatithep/iyra, established by A. Milne-Edwards in 1881, is nowadays 

 represented by 2 i species and 4 varieties, the greater part of which have been observed either 

 in the Indopacific or in the Atlantic or on the west coast of America, but some species of this 

 deep-water genus are more widely distributed, occurring both in the Indopacific and the Atlantic 

 or both in the Indopacific and off the west coast of America, or on both sides of the new 

 world, AcaiiiJi. purpurea A. M.-Edw., finally, shows an almost world-wide range. This nice 

 species, easily recognizable by the long slender rostrum, armed dorsally throughout its whole 

 length, straight or slightly upturned, and by some other characters, occurs, indeed, not only 

 in the Mediterranean and in the whole Atlantic from Davis Strait and Iceland to the Falkland 

 Islands, but has also been taken in the Indian Ocean .south of the Equator, the Indian 

 Archipelago, south of Australia, off japan and even in the Gulf of Panama and on the coast 

 of Ecuador; as far as I am aware, it has, however, not yet been captured in the West Indies, 

 in the Red Sea and in the Indian Ocean north of the Equator, being represented in the Arabian 

 Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea by the closely allied Acanth. satiguinea 

 W.-Mas. The first described species, Aca^ith. ariiiata A. M.-FLdw., known from the West 

 Indies, was obtained by the "Siboga" at five different Stations, far distant from one another, 

 of the Indian Archipelago, though it was already recorded from off the island of Banda 

 by the "Challenger". A similar distribution shows Acanth. eximea S. I. Smith, which is 

 moreover known from south of Pernambuco and from the Hawaiian Islands, its variety 

 brachytelsonis Bate is distributed throughout the Indopacific from the Arabian Sea to the 

 Kermadec Islands and Japan, but is also recorded from north of the P^alkland Islands. The 

 third and last species, known both from the Indopacific and the Atlantic, is Acanth. microph- 

 thalina S. I. Smith. Acanth. curtirostris W.-Mas. is the only species that occurs as well in the 

 Indopacific as on the west coast of America, while Acanth. (Meningodora) brevirostris S. I. 

 Smith is the only form found both on the east and on the west side of the New World, 

 though the solitary specimen recorded from the west side, a male taken off the north coast of 



