On Deej)-sea Alcijonana from the Indian Ocean. 427 



LXIII.— iVa/«m/ JUstory Notes from the R.I. M.S. Ship 

 'Iiict'stifjnfor,' Cajd. T. II. lleining, Jl.N., commanding. — 

 Series 111., No. 15. Second Prelimin<iry Report on the 

 Dei'p-sea Alcyonnria collected in the Indian Ocean. By 



Prof. J. AiiTiiuR Thomson, M.A., and W. D. Henderson, 

 M.A., B.8c., Carnegie Kesearcli Fellow, University of 

 Aberdeen. 



In the Ann. & Maj?. Nat. Hist. vol. xv. 1905, pp. 547-557, 

 we published a preliminary report on a collection of deep-sea 

 Alcyonarians from the Indian Ocean, entrusted to us for 

 examination by the Trustees of the Indian Museum through 

 Prof. A. Alcock, LL.D., F.ll.S. As we have completed our 

 survey, we wish, pending the publication of the memoir, to 

 sum up the general results and to make a few corrections in 

 our first preliminary report. 



The collection includes 86 species, of which 61 seem to be 

 new. Descriptions of the new forms are given in the 

 memoir about to be published. The distribution of the new 

 forms is as follows : — 6 Stolonifera, 8 Alcyonacea, 3 Pseud- 

 axonia, 22 Axifera, and 22 Stelechotokea. It has been 

 found necessary to establish five new genera — Stereacanthia 

 and Agaricoides (the latter established by Mr. J. J. Simpson, 

 ZooL Auzeig. xxix. 1905, j)p. 2G3-271, 19 figs.), both in the 

 family NephthyidEe, subfamily SiphonogorgiuEe ; Acantho- 

 nniricea and Calicogorgia in the family Muriceidae; and 

 Thesioides in the family Kophobelemnouidge. We submit 

 brief notes on these five new types. 



Neio Types. 



The genus Stereacanthia^ from the Andamans, is a Siphono- 

 gorgid in the vicinity of Lemnalia. A bare, densely spicu- 

 lose trunk, made up of large longitudinal canals, with thin 

 spiculose walls, bears a branched polyparium with the polyps 

 disposed singly or in small crowded bundles; the aboral 

 bands of spicules on the infolded tentacles form a simple 

 pseudo-operculum ; the spicules are warty spindles or golf- 

 club forms, and there are no quadriradiate double-stars as in 

 Lemnalia. 



The genus Agaricoides, from 6"^ 31' N., 79° 33' 45" E., is 

 a remarkable Siphonogorgid, perhaps distinctly related to 

 Lemnalia (Gray, emend. Bourne), but quite unlike any other 

 type known to us. It is unbranched, mushroom-like, with 

 complex octagonal verruca3, pedicelled anthocodioc, intro- 



