9G6 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OP FISH AND FISHERIES. [40] 



PNEUMATOPHORiE (PNEUMATOPHORIDiE, Chun). 



Family PHYSALIADzE, Braudt, 1835. 



The Pliysaliadfe are represeuted in the Gulf Stream as elsewhere by 

 the single g'euus, Fhymlia. Tlie species is very comuiou and is proba- 

 bly P. Arethum, Til. The spe(;ies is widely distributed iu all jsarts of 

 the Gulf Stream. 



Family RHIZOPHYSID^, Auct. 



There are two genera of this family, Rhizopliysa* and Pterophysa gen. 

 nov. The former genus has four species, B. JUiformis,\ Lam., R. Eysen- 

 hardtii, Geg., R. gracilis, Few., and R. uvaria, sp. nov. Pterophysa has 

 a single species, P. grandis, sp. nov. There is also a fragment of a new 

 % Rliisopliysa with a gigantic float. 



Many fragments of genera of llhizophysiihe, which could not be de- 

 termined, were sent to me for identification as found on the dredge rope 

 used by the Albatross. Among these are possible relatives of Studer's, 

 R. conifera, but they were too fragmentary for ideutitication. The in- 

 dications are that the family of Rhizoi)hysida' will be found to be rep- 

 resented in pelagic faunas by a great nundier of new genera and species, 

 although alcoholic material thus far preserved is in a most unsatisfac- 

 tory condition for good diagnoses of the undoubtedly^ new species which 

 have been collected. It is only on living specimens that many of the 

 minor specific differences, characteristic of the diflereut members of the 

 genus, can be observed. These characters are commonly lost or destroyed 

 in the preservation of the animal in alcohol. The polypites of my new 

 genus, Pterophysa, have such an e^ftraordinary structure that even from 

 a specimen shrunken and distorted by the alcohol, I think myself jus- 

 tified iu regarding it a new genus and describing it as such. A species 

 of Rhizojihysa, very different from any yet described, is also well enough 

 marked to merit a new name, R. uvaria. 



* SpeciiTieus of a species of Bhiziyphjisa were collected by the Blake at Station 147, 

 St. Kitts, depth 250 fathoms. I have examined these specimens and find them to 

 consist of a large number of fragments, mostly gigantic i)olyi)ites, with one extremity 

 colored a dark purple, while the greater jiart of the same organ is white or pink tlesh 

 colored. The species of lihicojyhysa, to which these fragments belong, is unknown to 

 me. 



t Studer {Zeit. f. wiss. ZooL, Bd. xxxi) says, "Erstere (li. filtformis) in Mittelmeer 

 hiiuiig beobachtet, scheiut cine weite Verbreituug zu haben, wenn die von Huxley 

 citirte Art mit B. filiformis identisch ist, sie stammt aus dein Nordatlantischen Ocean." 

 The species recorded by Huxley is not filiformis but Eijsenhardtii, and he observed it 

 in the Indian Ocean. B. filiformis, as Studer says, occurs in the Atlantic, as I have 

 fcmnd it at Key West, Fla., and at the Bermudas. 



