208 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM voi,. m 



I am in agi-eement with Utinomi (1953) and Maefadyen (1936) that' 

 the name Lobularia Lamarck cannot be used for the Indo-Pacific 

 genus of Alcyoniidae to which it is usually applied. Macfadyen's 

 replacement was scarcely necessary, however, because earlier names 

 were available. J. E. Gray, in 1869, established the genus Sphaerella 

 for a single species, Alcyonium tuber'culosum Quoy and Gaimard, from 

 Tonga. Tixier-Duri vault (1948) redescribed Quoy and Gaimard's 

 type specimen and made it clear that A. tuherculosum is a Lobularia 

 sensu Ehrenberg, thus defining Gray's genus. Inasmuch as the name 

 Sphaerella has some 67 years' priority over Microspicularia, I advocate 

 its use. Since none of the original three species of Lobularia Lamarck, 

 1816, belongs to Lobularia sensu Tixier-Durivault and other authors, 

 that name is absolutely inadmissible regardless of which of the three 

 species is taken as its genotype. 



Order GORGONACEA Lamouroux, 1816 



Suborder SCLERAXONIA Studer, 1887 



Family Anthothelidae Broch, 1916 



Subfamily Spongiodermatinae Aurivillius, 1931 



TripaleOf new genus 



Suberia Studer, 1878, p. 666 (part). 



The valid type designation for Studer's genus Suberia seems to be 

 that of Nutting, 1911 (p. 13), selecting Suberia kollikeri, a species 

 shown by Kiikenthal to be a Semperina. Suberia is thus a subjective 

 junior synonym of Semperina, and Suberia clavaria Studer (which is 

 not congeneric) is left without a genus. For this species I therefore 

 establish the genus Tripalea, which may be briefly diagnosed as 

 follows : 



Monomorphic Scleraxonia with the medullar zone perforated 

 throughout by gastrodermal solenia; a single ring of wide boundary 

 canals separating medulla from cortex. Cortex with two distinct 

 layers, the inner and thicker one very open and spongy with the walls 

 of its spacious lacunae containing few spicules; the outer and thinner 

 layer compact, densely packed with spicules different from those of 

 the inner layer, extending into the inner cortex as an investment of the 

 gastric cavities, which continues as a sheath around the major gastro- 

 dermal canals. 



Type species: Suberia clavaria Studer, 1878= Tripalea clavaria, new 

 combination. Colonies simple, clavate, arising from an encrusting 

 base. The spicules of the thin outer cortex are short capstans; of the 



