io6 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



208. Cystammina pauciloculata (Brady) (SG 144). 



Fourteen stations: 360, 362, 382-4; WS 403, 468, 471, 472, 474, 503, 516, 552, 555. 



Generally distributed but always rare or very rare. All the records are from deep water 

 between 261 1 and 4845 m. The best and largest specimens were found at Sts. 362, WS 

 468, 471, 472 and 474, all being in the Scotia Sea. 



Genus Ammocibicides, gen.n. 



Test free or sessile, possibly loosely attached in the early stages, subsequently assum- 

 ing a free existence. Consisting of an indeterminate number of chambers, generally 

 compressed, sometimes becoming inflated later on. Chambers arranged at first in a 

 flattened evolute spiral resembling sessile specimens of Cibicides ; subsequently adding 

 chambers of irregular shapes without settled plan, uniserial, biserial, continuing the 

 original spiral in a more or less irregular fashion, or altogether amorphously. The outer 

 edges of the chambers are sometimes rather thickened, and generally produced into 

 irregular cusps and processes. As a rule all the chambers are visible on the superior 

 surface and separated by slightly depressed sutures, but occasionally chambers are 

 superimposed on earlier growth. The inferior side is flat or altogether irregular, con- 

 forming in shape to the surface on which the organism grew. The aperture is a circular 

 hole, or narrow slit with thickened lip, placed anywhere on the edge or superior surface 

 of the final chamber, but is not always visible. Secondary apertures of a similar kind are 

 occasionally seen on earlier chambers. It is presumed that the various chambers com- 

 municate through such apertures, but except in a few specimens it has not been possible 

 to confirm this. In the majority no communicating passage can be seen, and the proto- 

 plasm probably passes through interstices in the walls, as in many other Foraminifera. 

 The wall is thin but firm, smooth and sometimes highly polished. It is composed of 

 very fine sand or mud with a large proportion of grey cement. Individual sand grains 

 of larger size are rarely seen. The colour varies from nearly white to dark grey. 



Ammocibicides was found only in the deepest water of the Scotia Sea and Drake Strait, 

 where it lives on the surface of the Globigerina ooze, the under surface of specimens often 

 showing rounded depressions where the test has moulded itself on other organisms. At 

 the same time I have not seen any specimens with Globigerinae attached, so the bond 

 must be very slight. A single large biserial specimen (cf. Dyocibicides), and a smaller 

 irregular specimen firmly attached to a manganese nodule at St. 384, represent the only 

 evidence of a permanent sessile habit. 



209. Ammocibicides proteus, sp.n. (Plate III, figs. 53, 54, and Plate IV, figs. 1-7). 

 Six stations: 384-6; WS 202, 205, 403. 



Rare or very rare at all the stations, which range between 3638 and 4773 m. 



The description of the genus is almost sufficient for the genotype species. It is a 

 variable organism, hardly any two of the specimens found being similar. In its earliest 

 stages it is comparatively regular in formation, the chambers being arranged in an open 

 spiral, and resembling an extremely pauperate variety of Cibicides lobatidus which occurs 

 in its company at several stations. When these specimens are dead and decomposed, they 



