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NEW SPECIES OF HYDROIDS FROM THE PUERTO 

 RICAN REGION 



By c. McLean eraser 



Department of Zoology, Lbiiversity of British Cohuubia 

 (With Two Plates) 



Through the kindness of the United States National Museum, an 

 opportunity has been afforded to examine the hydroid material col- 

 lected by the First Johnson-Smithsonian Deep-Sea Expedition, in 

 February and March 1933, at several dredging stations, all in the 

 vicinity of Puerto Rico, in latitude i8°ii'55" to i9°io'25" N., and 

 longitude 64°33' to 69°2o'45" W., in depths from 9 to 300 fathoms. 



The collection is of considerable interest because, although there 

 was noticeable activity in hydroid collecting in this general region in 

 the latter portion of the last century, there has been little of it since. 

 Many of the species obtained have not been reported for 40, 50, or 

 60 years, and, in some instances, the species now appear for the 

 first time since they were originally described. So much is this the 

 case that the best single reference paper is Allman's " Report on the 

 Hydroida Collected During the Exploration of the Gulf Stream by 

 L. F. Pourtales, Assistant United States Coast Survey ", published 

 in 1877 in the Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at 

 Harvard College, volume 5, no. 2. 



My sincere thanks are due to the United States National Museum 

 for the opportunity of examining this collection. For the drawings 

 I am indebted to Miss Ursula Dale, an Honours student in zoology 

 at the University of British Columbia. 



In all, 42 species were obtained in the collection of which 9, here 

 described, appear to be new. 



The gonangium of Halicoriiaria lougicauda Nutting also is here 

 described for the first time. 



CLYTIA LAXA, n. sp. 

 Plate I, fig. I 



TropJiosome. — Colony up to 5 cm in height, never entirely erect ; 

 main stem stout, fascicled, irregularly and loosely branched ; branches 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 9i. No. 28 



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