Dr. J. E. Gray on Zoophytes with Pinnated Tentacles. -J39 



the alternate interstices elevated, pure black, spotted with ashy; 

 antennae reddish only at the base; legs black. Length 2 lines. 

 Besides the difference in colour, which in this genus is per- 

 haps not very important, and the greater width, which attains its 

 maximum at the junction of the prothorax with the elytra in 

 this species, whilst in A. rufipes it is at about the upper third of 

 the elytra, it is also distinguished by the joints of the club being 

 very decidedly longer ; both are also very nearly allied to Arace- 

 rus* Coffea, r\, which, however, is smaller and more convex, with 

 proportionally longer autennse, aud generally has a patch of 

 several longish grey hairs on the shoulders; from tins I find it 

 difficult to distinguish Tropideres fragilis of Mr. Walker, from 

 Ceylon, the type of which is in my collection. 



XLV. — On the Arrangement of Zoophytes with Pinnated Tentacles. 

 By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S., Pres. Ent. Soc, &c. 



Considerable attention has been paid by various authors to 

 the arrangement of the stony Corals (Actinaria), by MM. Milne- 

 Edwards and Ilaime, and by Mr. Dana among others; but com- 

 paratively little progress has been made in the arrangement of 

 the Zoophytes with pinnated tentacles, or Alcyonaria, since the 

 time of Lamarck. 



I have for years been studying these animals and the corals 

 which they form, aud have only been prevented from publishing 

 the result of my studies by the desire to feel more sure with 

 regard to the distinction between the species of the family of 

 Gorgoniada?, and to ascertain with greater certainty than I have 

 yet been able the true synonymy of the species of the genera of 

 that family. 



In the meantime I would suggest the following arrangement 

 of the families, as that which best explains the relation of the 

 various genera to each other. 



Order I. SABULICOL^. 



Coral-tree symmetrical, with a simple base, supported by 

 more or less distinct calcareous spicula, and strengthened by a 

 single, fusiform, elongate, calcareous, central axis. Living with 

 the base sunk in the sand or mud of the sea-coast. 



Fam. 1. Fennatulidse. 



Body free, more or less pen-like, with a naked peduncle and a 



* More correctly A rceocerus; but I hold that the orthography of the ori- 

 ginal authority ought never to be departed from, except in the case of some 

 very gross and insufferable blunder, Schouherr first proposed A racer us in 

 his " Curculionidum Dispositio Methodica," p. 40, and repeated it without 

 alteration in his " Svnonvmia." 



