38G Mr. S. Pace on " Moseleya." 



we read : — " Tlie discovery of Moseleya latisteUnta, a reef- 

 coral from Wednesday Island, Torres Straits, leaves no doubt 

 as to the close relatioiisliip of the Astraeidae to the Cyatho- 

 phyllidae. Moseleya is a compound coral with polygonal 

 calicles, a thin epitheca, a rudimentary tiieca, and the cavity 

 of tlie calicles is filled up nearly to the mari^in by tabulae 

 separated by an abundant dissepimental endotheca. The 

 septa in adult calicles are numerous and give no indication of 

 a hexanieral arrangement, but in young calicles a tetrameral 

 symmetry is distinctly visible *, owing to the cruciate arrange- 

 ment of four large septa. Moseleya shows decided affinities, 

 on the one hand to a typical Astraeid such as Prionastraea ; on 

 the other hand to a Cyathophyllid, such as Cy itlwphyllum 

 regiumy and it cannot be doubted that the Cyathophyllidae 

 and the forms allied to them can no longer be classified apart 

 as Rugosa, but must be placed along with or close to the 

 Astraeidae." 



It has recently been my fortune, while collecting in Torres 

 Straits, to meet with a very considerable number of specimens f 

 of what I take to be a species of lAthophijUia. The coral in 

 question is a common one at most stations in this region; it 

 is met with at and below extreme low-water mark on the 

 reefs, while most of my specimens have been obtained from 

 the backs of })earl-shell picked up by divers in depths ranging 

 irom 3 or 4 fathoms to upwards of 20. As is the case with 

 corals in general, the shape and general appearance of the 

 corallum is very variable, and it assumes quite a different 

 character in relation to the nature of the environment. Now, 

 the point to which I would call attention is that some examples 

 of this form appear to be quite indistinguishable from Quelch's 

 Moseleya latistellata. The question therefore naturally arises 

 whether those who have based such weighty conclusions 

 upon the single ' Challenger ' specimen may not have acted 

 somewhat precipitately : whether, after all, Moseleya may in 

 reality have no genetic relationship whatever to the Cyatho- 

 phylUdce, and whether its supposed Rugose characters are not 

 merely the expression of adaptive modification. 



Most of the specimens brought home by me differ at first 

 sight very considerably from the ' Challenger ' specimen of 

 Museleya in that the calices are not nearly so flattened or 



* One can find in this specimen symmetry of a«y order — tetrameral, 

 hexameral, or pentameral ; all equally subjective. 



t Some examples were preserved and will be presented to the British 

 Museum ; but unfortunately I did not at the time realize how much 

 interest they possessed, as otherwise I might easily have collected much 

 more matenal, and should also have made more careful observation of the 

 coral during life. 



