THE CORAL SIDERASTREA RADIANS AND ITS POSTLARVAL 



DEVELOPMENT. 



BY J. E. DUERDEN. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The following are the more important references to and synonyms of this 

 well-known species of coral : 



Madrepora radians, Pallas, Elench. Zooph., 1766, 322. 



Madrepora astroites, Linnaeus, Sys. Nat., ed. xn, 1767, 1276. 



Madrepora galaxea, Ellis & Solander, Nat. Hist. Zooph., 1786, 168, pi. 47, fig. 7. 



Astrea galaxea, Lamarck, Syst. Anim. s. Vert., 1801, 371; Le Sueur, Me"m. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, t. 



vi, 1820, 285, pi. xvi, fig. 13; Lamouroux, Expos. Me*th., 1821, 60, pi. XLIX, fig. 7. 

 Astrcea radians, Oken, Lehrb. Naturgesch., 1815, bd. i. 65; Milne-Edwards & Haime, Hist. Nat. Cor., 



1857, t. n, 506; Gregory, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. Lond., vol. LI, 1895, 277. 

 Astrea (Siderastrea) galaxea, de Blainville, Diet. Sci. Nat., 1830, torn. LX, 335; Man. Actin., 1834, 



370. 



Astrcea astroites, Ehrenberg, Corall. roth Meer, Abhandl. kongl. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1832. 319. 

 Siderina galaxea (pars), Dana, Zooph. Wilkes Expl. Exped., 1846, 2l8, pi. X, figs. 12, I2#, I2C. 

 Siderastrcea galaxea, Milne-Edwards & Haime, Ann. Sci. Nat, 1850, torn, xn, 139; Pourtales, Deep-Sea 



Corals, 111. Cat. Mus. Comp. Zool., no. iv, 1871,81; Florida Reefs, Me"m. Mus. Comp. Zool., 



1880, vol. vn, pt. i, pi. xi, figs. 14-21, pi. xv, figs. I-J2; Quelch, Reef Corals, Challenger Reports, 



1886, vol. xvi, 113; Heilprin, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1890, 305. 

 Siderastrce{e\a radians, Verrill, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. I, 1864, 55; Vaughan, Bull. U. S. Fish Com- 



mission 1900, vol. 2, 1901, 309, pi. xv, pi. xvi, fig. 2; Samm. der Geol. R. Museums in Leiden, 



1901, Ser. n, bd. 11, 61 ; Verrill, Trans. Conn. Acad. Science, vol. xi, 1901, 153, pi. xxx, fig. i. 



The generic term has been thoroughly discussed in the recent papers of 

 Gregory (1895, p. 278), Vaughan (1900, p. 154), and Verrill (1901, p. 88). 

 Vaughan, fortunately for coral taxonomy, shows that the name Astr&a, first 

 used binomially as a coral genus by Lamarck in 1801, can not be retained 

 in madreporarian terminology, having been employed by Bolten in 1798 for 

 a group of gastropod shells. In this conclusion he is supported by Verrill. 

 The next generic name available is the Siderastrea of de Blainville, 1830. 

 The specific term radians of Pallas (1766) has priority of the galaxea of 

 Ellis & Solander (1786), and Vaughan holds that the Madrepora astroites 

 of the twelfth edition of Linnaeus is the same as M. radians of Pallas. 



The species is very common throughout the West Indies, and is recorded 



