Poly zoa from Barents Sea. 279 



var. gtgantea, are two different things ; and whilst I quite agree 

 with him that the former is a species, I still hold that the latter 

 is properly accounted a variety. 



Suborder Athecata, Hincks. 

 Note on Myriothela phrygia, Fabricius. 



A Myriothela occurs amongst the dredgings from Barents Sea 

 which is undoubtedly distinct from the species described under 

 the above name in my ' History of the British Hydroid Zoo- 

 phytes ' and in Allman's paper in the ' Philosophical Transac- 

 tions'*. Prof. G. 0. Sars has already pointed out that the 

 Lucernaria phrygia of Fabricius is not identical with the 

 British form ; and he reports the occurrence of both species on 

 the Norwegian coasts. He does not give any detailed account 

 of the differences between the two ; but he mentions that their 

 mode of attachment is dissimilar. 



In a notice of the third part of the ( Fauna Littoralis Nor- 

 vegise ' in the { American Journal of Science ' (vol. xvii. 

 March 1879), Prof. Verrill describes a Myriothela which had 

 been dredged off the coast of Nova Scotia, and which he 

 believes to be the genuine M. phrygia of Fabricius. His 

 account of it leaves no doubt that it is identical with the 

 Barents-Sea species. 



In this form the tentacles, which are furnished with very 

 large capitula, are thickly distributed over more than half the 

 body ; they seem to want (so far as we can judge from a speci- 

 men preserved in spirit) the purplish spot on the summit, which 

 is found in the British species. Beneath the tentaculiferous 

 region the body is somewhat constricted, whilst the terminal 

 portion is much swollen (having quite a bulbous appearance), 

 and is densely covered with the reproductive zooids. The latter 

 are, I think, larger than I have seen them in the British 

 species; and each of them bears a considerable cluster of gono- 

 phores. They extend to the very base of the body, which ter- 

 minates in an obtuse extremity and is totally destitute of any 

 chitinous investment. The naked tract which, in our British 

 form, succeeds the reproductive zone, and the bent or decum- 

 bent extremity clothed with polypary, have no representatives 

 here. The base gives off a number of slender, filiform pro- 

 cesses, which take their origin amongst the reproductive 

 zooids ; and these expand at the extremity into adhesive disks, 

 by which the animal is attached. 



* " On the Structure and Development of Myriothela" Phil, Trans, 

 vol. 165, pt. 2, p. 549. 



