180 J. E. DuERDEN — Jamaican Actiniaria : 



flesh digested, was extruded by the animal while under observation in the 

 laboratory. 



MM. Duchassaing and Michelotti obtained their specimens upon submerged 

 rocks at Guadaloujje. 



Andres places the species, as Aureliania elegans, among his AurclianidcB duhice. 

 It is undoubtedly a Discosomid as here defined, and not enough is yet known of 

 the British Aureliania to warrant such a generic relationship. The perfect 

 similarity of type of its sphincter muscle with that of >S'. helianthus must be taken 

 into account in any consideration of its relationships. 



Family. — CoRALLiMOEPHiDiE, Hertwig. 



Corallimorphidw, . . Hertwig, 1882 ; M^Murrich, 1893 ; Haddon, 1898. 

 Cortjnactidce, . . . Andres, 1883. 



Stichodact3dina3, in which the tentacles are all of one form, capitate, and com- 

 paratively few ; a distinction between a peripheral cyclic series and an inner radial 

 series may or may not be apparent. Muscular system weak in all parts of the 

 body ; sphincter muscle absent or weak. 



This family was established by Professor R. Hertwig (1882, p. 21) for the 

 reception of two species of "Challenger" Actiniai, both belonging to the genus 

 Corallimorphus of Moseley (1877). The genus was considered to bear a close 

 relation to both Discosoma and Corynactis, and, in the "Supplement" (1888, 

 p. 10), the latter is definitel}^ included in the family. In his great work, pub- 

 lished a year later, Andres employed the more preferable family name Corynactidae 

 to embrace the genera Corynactis, Corallimorphus, and Capnea. Of the two terms 

 having thus practically the same significance, Hertwig' s, bearing priority, must be 

 the one employed. 



The characters which Hertwig regarded as of greatest diagnostic importance 

 in the genus Corallimorphus, and which at that time held also for the family, 

 were, " the double corona of tentacles, the equal distribution of the reproduc- 

 tive elements, and the absence of the circular muscle." These can now be 

 retained only for Corallimorphus. In Corynactis there is not the same distinc- 

 tion between an outer and an inner series of tentacles, the distribution of the 

 gonads is not fully known, while a circular muscle, though not strong, certainly 

 exists. 



