1898.J FBOM FUNAFUTI AND EOTUMA. 845 



as the smallest of the outer tentacles (if the inner circle consisted 

 of 5 pairs, a condition similar to that which I found in a specimen 

 of Ps. jajyonica, v. Diagram II., would result). 



Ludwig (1887, I. c.) described a specimen in which the arrange- 

 ment and number of tentacles were quite different, an inner circle 

 of 5 pairs being surrounded by an outer circle of 20 larger 

 tentacles arranged in 5 groups of 4, making 80 altogether. 



Ps. japonica Bell. — In two specimens in the British Museum I 

 find 25 and 23 tentacles respectively, arranged as in Diagrams II. a 

 and II. B. 



Ps. africana Semper possesses 20 tentacles. Ludwig (I. c, 1887, 

 Ps. theeli) described in two examples the arrangement shown in 

 Diagram III. a, which is taken from Bronn, I. c. p. 95. 4 out of 

 the 7 specimens were preserved in formol with expanded tentacles, 

 and in these specimens the arrangement is as shown in Diagrams 



III. B, C, D, E. 



The interest of these variations seems to me to lie chiefly in two 

 directions : (1) the individual variations follow the same lines as 

 the specific differences, and in consequence they indicate the sort 

 of stages by which it is possible for one type of tentacular arivange- 

 ment to be converted into other types without any " breaches of 

 continuity " ; and (2) the relation of the minor tentacular symmetry 

 to the major symmetry of the body is seen in the bilateral 

 symmetry of the tentacles combined with a radial and interradial 

 arrangement. 



It may be interesting to note the presence of developing 

 Gastropod eggs, crowded in the usual mucoid (?) capsules, and 

 fixed to the surface of one of the specimens : the capsules were 

 circular in outline and rather more than 1 mm. across, each con- 

 taining over 100 embryos ; whether these belong to some parasitic 

 genus, e. g. EuUma or kitfjlifer, or to a free-living form, I have no 

 opportunity of discovering. 



Stnaptid.*;. 



Chieidota L1BEEA.TA Sluiter. 



Chirodota liberata C. Ph. Sluiter, Natuurh. Tijd. v. Ked. Ind. 

 xlvii. 1887, pp. 212, 213, Taf. ii. figs. 44, 45. 



Distribution. Sluiter's specimens were found creeping on dead 

 or living branches of coral in the Bay of Batavia, and a single 

 specimen is recorded from Pulo Edaui. 



One specimen from Eotuma, 28 mm. X 4 mm., 12 tentacles, each 

 with 8 to 10 pinnae, the two longest forming a terminal pair ; 

 wheel-papillsD in single row on two ventral interambulacra, dis- 

 tributed more numerously on 3 dorsal interambulacra as in C. rigida. 

 Wheels "05 mm. diameter, owing to partial solution no details could 

 be made out ; no deposits in body-wall outside wheel-papillae, but 

 within the papillae the characteristic C-shaped bodies figured by 

 Sluiter occur ; these at first sight appear like broken rims of wheels. 



