198 PEECY SLADEN TRUST EXPEDITION 



Family MelitodidsB. 



Genus MELITODES. 

 70. Melitodes Icevis, Wright and Stiider. (Plate 10. figs. 5 & 10.) 



For description see : — 



Wright and Shider: 'Challenger' Reports, xxxi. (1889) p. 179, pi. 40. fig. 8. 



A well-branched, freely anastomosing specimen, 10-5 cm. high by 5 cm. broad, cor- 

 responding on the whole to the diagnosis of Melitodes Icevis. It differs from the type- 

 specimen, however, in the following points : — (1) the colour is a deep salmon-pink, 

 tending to brown in places, instead of being grey ; (2) the spicules are rather simpler 

 and less thorny than those figured by Wright aad Studer ; and (3) there occur among 

 the spicules numerous spindles with but two whorls of warts, which are not mentioned 

 in the ' Challenger ' description. 



Locality. Providence, 50 and 60 fms. 



Previously recorded from Amboina, 15-25 fms. 



71. llelitodes variabilis, Hickson. (Plate 13. fig. 13.) 

 For description see : — 



Hickson: Alcyonaria of the Maldives, part iii. vol. ii. (1903) p. 809, fig. 11. 



Specimens in this collection show the delicate form, the branching in all planes, 

 with frequent anastomosis, and the very variable colour described as characteristic of 

 Melitodes variabilis. 



The majority of our specimens are sulphur-yellow with sealing-wax red nodes ; a few 

 are creamy white with red nodes, and others are salmon-pink with red nodes. The red 

 colour of the nodes is often carried up for a short way on to the iuternodes in a series of 

 fitue specks and dots. 



Locality. Providence, 50 fms. 



Previously recorded from the Maldives (shallow Mater), Gulf of Martaban. Andamans. 



72. Melitodes flabellum, sp. n. (Plate 10. figs. 6 & 7 ; Plate 13. fig. 8.) 



We are obliged to create a new species to include a small brown Melitodid that does 

 not correspond exactly with any hitherto described form. 



The available material consists of one piece from the anastomosing network of 

 the upper part of a colony (35 cm. high by 5 cm. broad), and a number of smaller 

 fragments. 



The colony has the appearance of a network with oblong meshes, owing to strongly 

 developed anastomosis, and the fact that the branching occurs in one plane only. A 

 number of slender branches (1-5-2 mm. in diameter) run upwards more or less parallel 

 to one another, and then branch dichotomously ; the two forks diverge slightly, but 

 continue to keep a roughly parallel course, and, in their turn, divide to form a 



