TIARA PAPUA. 207 



can judge from them, it has strong probability of correctness, and as, from 

 the nature of these figures it is unlikely that any more satisfactory identi- 

 fication can ever be made, it will add to stability of nomenclature if it be 

 adopted. 



1 have no doubt that T. occanica Agassiz and Mayer (: 02) is merely a 

 more advanced stage of the same species, its larger number of tentacles 

 being easily explicable as a concomitant of growth, and the small size of 

 the single specimen seeming of but little significance in view of the ex- 

 treme variability of this character. Moreover Dr. Mayer has recently 

 informed me that he now believes T. oceanica to be identical with T. papua if 

 not with T. pileata. The same is true also, according to my view, of T. inter- 

 media Browne (: 02) from the Falkland Islands, a conclusion already reached 

 by Maas (: 05). Browne has described the rudimentary tentacles of T. inter- 

 media as mere bulbs ; whereas in the " Siboga " specimens they are true 

 tentacles, though small. These two states, however, are shown by the con- 

 ditions in the present series to be successive stages in development, the 

 bulbular preceding the tentacular ; therefore they afford no ground for 

 specific separation. 



The relationship of the Indo-Pacific species, T. papua, to the common At- 

 lantic T. pileata cannot be decided at present. As Maas (: 05) has pointed 

 out, it is possible, especially since T. papua has been recorded from the South 

 Atlantic (T. irdermedia Browne) that the two may grade into each other; but 

 from the evidence now available it does not seem to me that such is likely 

 to be the case, for, so far as is known, adult T. pileata always has a very 

 much larger number of tentacles than has ever been recorded for T. papua. 



T. suberba Mayer, from the Tortugas, appears to be a sufficiently well- 

 characterized species. 



Tiara papua Lesson. 



Turria papua Lesson, '37, no. 36 ; '43, p. 28.'! ; Eydoux ct Souleyet, '52, p. G39, pi. 2, figs. IS. 



Tiara papua Maas, : 05, p. 14, tat'. 2, fig. 13. 



Tiara oceanica Agassiz and Mayer, : 02, p. 141, pi. 1, fig. 1. 



Tiara intermedia Browne, : 02, p. 277. 



PL 42, figs. / to h- 



Station 4605 ; 300 fathoms to surface ; 1 specimen, 5 mm. in diameter. 

 Station 4652 ; 200 fathoms to surface ; 1 specimen, 7 mm. high by 

 5 mm. in diameter. 



