﻿482 BULLETIN 103, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



1893. Madrepora muricula forma cavicornis Beook, Brit. Mas. (Xat. Hist.) Cat. 

 Madrep. corals, gen. Madrepora, p. 27. 



1900. Madrepora cervicornis Gregory, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. 6, 



p. 30. 



1901. Isopora muricata s. s. Vaughan, U. S. Fish. Com. Bull, for 1900, vol. 2, 



p. 313, pi. 21, pi. 22, fig. 2. 



1902. Acropora muricata var. cervicornis VERRii.r,, Conn. Acad. Arts and Sci, 



Trans., vol. 11, p. 167. 



1903. Madrepora muricata Duerden {part), Nat. Acad. Sci. Mem., vol. 8, p. 543. 



pis. 1 to 3, figs. 1 to 27. 



1915. Aa-opora cervicornis Vaughan, Washington Acad. Sci. Journ., vol. 5, 



p. 597. 



1916. Acropora cervicornis Vaughan, Carnegie Inst. Washington Yearbook No, 



14, p. 228. 



The nomenclature of the livmg West Indian and Floridian species 

 of Acropora is, in some respects, amusing. Brook in 1893, after 

 studying the considerable collections in the British Museum of Natural 

 History, reached the conclusion that the three previously recog- 

 nized species from Florida and the West Indies, A. cervicornis 

 A. prolifera, and A. ixilmata, really represented only forms of one 

 species, to which he applied the specific name muricata of Linnaeus. 

 Gregory in 1895 * adopted the opinion of Brook, but in 1899 he 

 visited the West Indian coral reefs and decided that all three supposed 

 species were valid (see reference for 1900 in the foregoing synonymy). 

 I studied a large suite of specimens and concurred with Brooks 

 (reference for 1901 in synonymy), and Verrill in his paper for 1902 

 followed the same course. From 1908 to 1915 (inclusive) I had 

 extensive field experience with the living coral reefs of Florida, 

 the Bahamas, and some of the Lesser Antilles, and am convinced 

 that Gregory's opinion, based on field acquaintance with these corals, 

 is correct. Very rarely indeed does one find a specimen that can not 

 be instantly referred to its proper species. In some of my papers 

 on the ecology and growth rate of Floridian and Bahaman corals, ^ 

 I have referred to this species as Acropora cervicornis, because 

 cervicornis is a rather generally known name for it. 



Localities and geologic occurrence. — Pleistocene at stations 5850, 

 Mount Hope, and 6554, mud flat, 1 foot above ordinary high-tide level, 

 Colon, Canal Zone; station 6251, Monkey Point, Costa Rica, 

 collected by D. F. MacDonald; and Moin Hill, Limon, Costa Rica, 

 "Niveau A.," collection of H. Pittier. 



This species is general in the West Indian and eastern Central 

 American Pleistocene reefs, where they were not exposed to the 

 beat of the heavy surf. Recent; eastern Central America, the West 

 Indies, and Florida. 



1 Oeol. Soc. Lpndon Quart. Journ., vol. 51, p. 281, 1895. 



2 Mostly in "^arbooks Nos. 9 to 14 of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. 



