CONTRIBUTIONS ON THE OCTOCORALLIA — BAYER 213 



Esper's typical G. antipathes, which had purple spicules in the inner 

 cortex, is the West Indian species that Houttuyn, P. L. S. Miiller, 

 and Esper himself had called Gorgonia porosa. 



Ifalukellidae, new family 



Holaxonia in which the axis is strongly calcified, its core not 

 chambered; calcareous material not oriented in a radial pattern; 

 concentric layers nearly smooth. Spicules in the form of minute 

 calcareous corpuscles, oval or elongate, usually with a median con- 

 striction, theu" sculpture irregularly granular; length 0.025-0.07 

 mm. 



Ifalukella, new genus 



Colonies low, arborescent, finely branched in an irregular, lateral 

 pattern. Axis calcareous, brittle, spirally ridged, arising from a 

 massive calcareous base onto which the ridges extend as high crests 

 with lobed or strongly laciniated edges that may produce small 

 twigs, some of which may develop into full-sized colonies. Coen- 

 enchyme thin; polyps unarmed. Spicules very small, up to 0.035 

 mm. in length, of characteristic outline. 



Type species: Ifalukella yanii, new species. 



Ifo!iikelhi yanii, new species 

 Plate 3,a-c 



Description: Scrubby little colonies reaching a height of 15 cm. 

 but averaging only 8-10 cm. Terminal branchlets up to 10 mm. 

 in length, very slender, 0.25-0.30 mm. in diameter, acutely pointed 

 (the apex of the twig shown in plate 3, a is atypical). Polyps small, 

 fully retractile into low verrucae about 0.1 mm. in height, arranged 

 in loose, irregular spiral rows. Coenenchyme thm; endoderm packed 

 with zooxanthellae. Spicules in the form of oval rods and disks up 

 to 0.035 mm. in length, very scarce (pi. 3,6). 



Holotype: USNM 50142. Ifaluk Atoll, central Caroline Islands: 

 seaward reef beyond breaker-line in 15-20 feet of water. Collected 

 Oct. 8, 1953, by Yaniseiman, schoolteacher of Ifaluk, able interpreter 

 and aide to the Ifaluk Atoll Survey team of the Pacific Science 

 Board. 



Remarks: The genus Ifalukella is apparently related to Plumi- 

 gorgia Nutting, which differs in its regular, pinnate plan of branching 

 and (in all specimens seen thus far) weaker development of the base 

 of attachment. Nutting placed his genus in the family Gorgonellidae 

 (now Ellisellidae) and was followed by Stiasny, 1940. Plumigorgia, 

 like Ifalukella, shows no trace of the radial orientation of axis cal- 

 cification which is characteristic of the Ellisellidae, and can hardly 



