Haddon and Shackleton — Actinice : I. Zoanthece. 683 



In 1889 M'^Murricla described specimens from the Bermudas, evidently belong- 

 ing to Gray's species and also agreeing closely with A. tuherculata, Duch. & Mich., 

 which he considers to be identical with it. Anatomical examination of these 

 specimens showed that they possessed most of the characters which Erdmann has 

 ascribed to the genus Mammillifera. M°Murrich therefore identified his specimens 

 as Mammillifera tiiherculata (Gray). 



From Erdmann's Paper, however, we cannot find that he has sufficient reasons 

 for concluding that the characters attributed by him to Mammillifera are possessed 

 by any of the species for which that genus was erected by Lesueur in 1817. The 

 specimens found by Erdmann in the museum at Bonn, from which he deduced 

 these generic characters, were not referred to any species. 



The generic name Mammillifera was adopted in 1817 by Lesueur for two 

 species from the West Indies, named by him M. auricula and M. nymphcea. His 

 definition of the genus is "A large cuticular expansion serving as a base for 

 numerous animals, which, when contracted, assume the form of mammae " (p. 178). 

 From the dimensions given by Erdmann for his unnamed specimen, it seems 

 possible that it agrees to some extent with this description, but the same might be 

 said of Zoanthus juJcesii ; whilst both Gray's I. tuherculatus and our /. asymmetricus 

 entirely disagree with it in outward form. It tlierefore appears that it is impossible 

 to determine the true characters of the genus Mammillifera until the type species 

 M. auricula has been recovered and submitted to anatomical examination. Until 

 this is done we must therefore retain the name Isaurus for those species which 

 undoubtedly belong to the same genus as I. tuherculatus and /. asymmeti-icus. 



Although, as above stated, Gray instituted the genus Isaurus for /. tuherculatus, 

 we find that in 1867 (P. Z. S., p. 234) he erects a new genus, Pales, for a closely 

 allied form. In his "Solitary, rarely irregularly aggregate" division of the 

 " Zoanthi malacodermi, or soft-skinned Zoanthi, or Zoanthinse," he recognises 

 three genera: "Isaurus, Gray, Spic. Zool., 8, 1825 [the copy we have seen is 

 dated 1828] ? Orinia, Duchassaing and Michelotti, Mdm. Coral, des Antilles, 54. 

 Pales [which he defines thus] — Body cylindrical, isolated, solitary, clustered, or 

 sometimes proliferous, but each specimen having a separate base ; outer skin 

 smooth, thin, olive-brown, slightly concentrically wrinkled; the tentacles numerous, 

 the internal laminae numerous, slender, only slightly elevated, straight and parallel 

 above, with a thickened edge, and sinuous below. Pales cliftoni (fig. 1, p. 236) — 

 Hab. Western Australia (Mr. Clifton). The bodies are from -I- to J- inch in diameter; 

 but they vary greatly in length, some being as much as 2 inches long ; but the 



general length [in spirits] seems to be about an inch They are found 



attached to shells, both isolated and in clusters, and the larger ones are attached 

 to the base of each other, forming a somewhat stellate cluster, as if they were free, 

 floating in the sea." 



5 F 2 



