CORALS FROM MURRAY, COCOS-KEELING, AND FANNING ISLANDS. 85 



Distribution. — Maldives, 28 fathoms and 36 fathoms (Gardiner); shore, Somer- 

 set, Cape York (Quelch); Malacca, East Indies, and East Indies without more spe- 

 cific locality (Dana); Amboina (Bedot); China Sea (Milne Edwards and Haime). 

 This species has as yet not been reported from the east coast of Africa, nor so far 

 east as the Fiji Islands. 



Family ORBICELLID^ Vaughan. 

 Genus ORBICELLA Dana. 



1846. Orbicella Dana, U. S. Expl. Exped., Zooph., p. 205. 



1857. Heliastraa Milne Edwards and Haime, Hist. nat. Corall, vol. 2, p. 456. 



1901. Orbicella Vaughan, Sainml. Geol. Reichs. Mus. Leiden, ser. 2, vol. 2, p. 21. 



1902. Orbicella Verrill, Trans. Conn. Acad. Arts and Sci., vol. II, p. 93. 



Type species: Orbicella annularis (Ellis and Solander). 



Regarding Orbicella annularis, it should be said that the current identifica- 

 tion of the small calicled Orbicella of the Floridian-West Indian region is correct. 

 Professor J. Graham Kerr of the University of Glasgow has kindly sent me photo- 

 graphs of Ellis and Solander's type specimen, and they confirm the correctness of 

 the use of the name. 



In my paper cited in the synonymy I said regarding Dana's proposal of the 

 name: "From his characterization and subsequent treatment of the species, it 

 is evident that Orbicella radiata or annularis is regarded as typical." As it appears 

 that a type species has hitherto not been designated, I so designate Madrepora 

 annularis Ellis and Solander. Duerden has described the anatomy of the species 

 in much detail.^ 



Orbicella versipora (Lamarck). 

 Plate 28, figure i, specimen from Cocos-Keeling Islands. 



1816. Astrea versipora Lamarck, Hist. nat. Anim. sans Vert., vol. 2, p. 264. 



1857. Plesiasiraa versipora Milne Edwards and Haime, Hist. nat. Corall, vol. 2, p. 490, plate D 7, fig. 5. 

 1914. Favia versipora Matthai, Trans. Linn. Soc. London, 2d ser., Zool., vol. 17, p. 103, plate 23, fig. 3; 

 plate 25, figs. 5, 6, 9; plate 37, fig. 3. 



The name of this species as given by Matthai and adopted here rests upon 

 the assumption that Milne Edwards and Haime either based their description and 

 figure on Lamarck's type or correctly identified the specimen which they described 

 and figured, as Lamarck's description is madequate. As the name versipora 

 receives its status from Milne Edwards and Haime, perhaps their annuligera should 

 be adopted. 



Matthai's plate 25, figure 6 (specimen from Minikoi), well represents the speci- 

 men from Cocos-Keeling. As the specific identification of the specimen from 

 French Somaliland which I referred to Orbicella annuligera^ seems erroneous, I 

 propose the name Orbicella gravieri for it. 



Matthai says: "A badly cleaned fragment in the Challenger collection, 

 with five or six corallites from Bermuda, referred by Quelch to Astrea coarctata 

 (Duchassaing and Michelotti), comes nearest the present species." As I assumed 

 that Quelch had correctly identified the species of Favia described by Duchassaing 

 and Michelotti, I did not look up the Challenger specmiens in London; therefore 

 the names he applied to the Bermudian specimens of Favia appear ni the synonymy 

 of Favia Jraguni in my account of that species.^ Of this we may be sure: no speci- 

 men of the same species of coral as the Pacific Orbicella versipora (or O. annuligera 

 if that name is preferred) has ever been found in the Atlantic Ocean. Either Mr. 

 Matthai has made an erroneous identification or the locality label is incorrect. 



'Nat. Acad. Sci. Mem., vol. 8, pp. 564-566, 1902. 



^Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 32, p. 252, plate 20, figure 3; plate 21; plate 22, figure 4. 



'See especially Samml. Ceolog. Reichs. Mus. Leiden, ser. 2, vol. 2, pp. 34-40, 1901. 



