PENNATULIDA. 



zur wissensch. Unters. deutsch. Meere f. d. J. 1872 73 (1875) P- J 4 2 )- Koren & Danielssen, however, 

 found that these specimens completely agreed with others, partly taken in the Skager Rak also (by 

 the Swedish gunboat Gnnhild), partly in fjords of the Norwegian west coast (Kors Fjord, Vest Fjord), 

 which specimens they now made to represent a new species K. moebii (Nye Gorg. etc. p. 25) ; but at 

 the same time they thought they had found the genuine K. leuckartii in a specimen from Trond- 

 hjem Fjord (1. c. p. 28), where this Pennatulid is said to be very common. Later, the same authors 

 described still another form as K. abyssorum from various Norwegian fjords, in some of which K. moebii 

 had been found. Thus we had no less than four Scandinavian species, of which only one seemed 

 the same as that from the Mediterranean 1 ). If we now examine the descriptions of these supposed 

 species we shall search in vain for characters that might be taken as specific; only such differences 

 are mentioned as change with age and size; this holds good of such features as the length of the 

 colony, the number of polyps, the proportion between the length of the rhachis and of the peduncle, 

 the number of rows of polyps, the size of the polyps; also, the size and numbers of the spicules are 

 very varying; other specific characters* arise from mere chance (e. g. a longitudinal furrow on the 

 rhachis or the like). As very characteristic examples of the value of the supposed specific characters, 

 the following may serve: in Kopli. abyssorum the stalk is almost twice the length of the rhachis; in 

 K. leuckartii it is only a little longer than the rhachis; in K. moebii the stalk is generally half the 

 length of the rhachis -- but in two very long specimens the stalk was relatively much longer, and 

 in young specimens it was as long as or even longer than the rhachis! I have carefully compared all 

 the type-specimens of these Scandinavian species, and I have not been able to keep them distinct; 

 further, I have examined the specimens of the Christiania Museum and a very large material of 

 Kophobelemnon in our own, and finally I have had the opportunity of examining a very large number 

 of K., partly collected in the deep channel of the Skager Rak by Dr. Joh. Petersen and Mag. A. C. Jo- 

 hansen, partly from different regions off Norway, taken by Dr. Hjort on the Michael Sars. In all 

 this large material I have only been able to see one single species; but of course it appears rather 

 different, if we compare extreme forms without any intermediate links: young colonies with giants 

 up to 75O mm long; specimens with quite few and relatively small polyps with others provided witli 

 ca. 150 large polyps with bodies of a length of ca. 2o mm ; specimens with fully stretched polyps with such 

 where the polyps are quite retracted (for even if the latter case is rather rare it does occur, and shows 

 accordingly that the polyps are quite retractile); big and clumsy specimens with slender and thin 

 ones etc. All the K. hitherto found at Norway and in the Skager Rak are, beyond a doubt, the 

 same species as the K. stelliferum of O. F. Mtiller, Asbjornsen, and Kolliker; and the different authors 

 have also referred to this species all the specimens of K. taken at different localities in the Atlantic 

 by the English expeditions of the Lightning, the Porcupine, the Triton, and the Knight Errant. 

 From the American side of the Atlantic, Verrill has established two species: K. scabrwn 

 (Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. XI, p. 7, PI. I, fig. 5), and K. tenue (Report Comm. Fish and Fisheres 1883, 

 p. 510, PI. Ill, fig. 5 (1885)). The former is short and clumsy, a young stage (56 mm long) with few (8) 

 polyps, rough on account of its rich provision of spicules; from the description I must regard it as 



') Panceri, however, had already in 1871 found a K. at Naples which he had determined as K. stelliferum, but 

 which Kolliker supposed to be identical more probably with K. leuckartii (Monogr. p. 370). 



