54 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



edge is drawn out into a variable number of conical tubes, which terminate in simple 

 round apertures. 



This very interesting species is based upon a few specimens from the Bransfield 

 Strait. Two were found in a small quantity of muddy residues obtained from nets 

 (N 70 V) at a depth of 720 m. at St. 196. A broken specimen was found in dredge 

 washings from St. 177 in 1080 m. Two soundings were also received for St. 196, but 

 yielded no other examples. In view of the small quantity of material obtained from the 

 nets, it seems possible that the species may be not uncommon at that station. 



The two specimens found at St. 196 are not identical, one being almost geometrically 

 regular in its pentagonal outline and the spacing of its tubes, five in number, while the 

 other is less neatly constructed and has six tubes extending from the margin, and an 

 accessory tube projecting from one face of the test. The broken specimen from St. 177 

 is even less regular in outline. The maximum diameter of the pentagonal specimen is 

 I '60 mm. and of the other 2-20 mm. 



A. polygojia is evidently allied to A. triangularis, having the same large body cavity 

 compared with the whole mass of the shell. The test, however, is more inflated, neater 

 and more regular in construction and the tubes more definite. 



There is a general resemblance to Vanhoejfenella gaussi in contour and the construc- 

 tion of the tubes, and the species may prove to be a link between the two genera. 



Genus Pelosphaera, Heron-Allen and Earland, 1932 



49. Pelosphaera cornuta, Heron-Allen and Earland (SG 59) (Plate I, fig. 12 and 

 Plate IX, figs. 3, 4). 



Two stations: 181 ; WS 482. 



A single broken specimen was found at St. WS 482 in the Bransfield Strait. At 

 St. 181 in the Palmer Archipelago, five excellent specimens, two of which were taken 

 directly from the alcohol in which they had been preserved on the ship, and mounted 

 in Canada balsam, show that the projecting processes which in dry specimens appear as 

 hollow cones of mud, are in life flexible tubes constructed of fine mud and extending to 

 a length equal to the diameter of the test. At about half length each tube breaks up into 

 a number of smaller tubes, which branch again and so decrease in diameter almost to a 

 vanishing point. The living organism therefore resembles Astrorhiza limicola except for 

 its spherical test, and I am removing the genus from the Saccammininae, where it was 

 originally placed, to the Astrorhizinae. 



Genus Iridia, Heron-Allen and Earland, 19 14 



50. Iridia diaphana, Heron-Allen and Earland (F 52) (SG 37). 

 Two stations: 163, 164. 



A single excellent specimen at St. 164, and two small and doubtful individuals at 

 St. 163. Both stations are in very shallow water (18-36 m.) in the South Orkneys, and 

 the paucity of specimens may be due to lack of suitable material for examination. 



