510 MR. E. W. SHANN ON 



and found to bear many points of resemblance with T. prolifera ; 

 the spicules, for instance, agree well with those figured by 

 Laackmann for that species {op. cit. p. 87), and the stem walls 

 ai-e very thin. At the same time, it was taken from the same 

 locality (Pulo Brani) as one of the larger specimens which un- 

 doubtedly belongs to the species T. rupicola. Moreover, another 

 specimen was intermediate in every particular between the 

 above exceptional form and the larger examples, which had been 

 assigned without diificulty to T. rupicola. As this small specimen 

 was evidently very young, one would not wish to attach too deep 

 a significance to the observations made or to draw any hasty 

 conclusions from them. At the same time, it is well within the 

 range of possibility that the accumulation of such knowledge 

 may lead eventually to a reduction in the number of species of 

 Telesto. 



An Historical Summary of the Genera Nephtliya, DendronejyhtJiya, 

 and SteveonephiJiya, with reasons for retaining the definitions 

 of these genera of the family ISTephthyidaj as enumerated 

 by Kiikenthal. 



Genus Nephthya Savigny. . 



1817. Nephthee Savigny, Descr. de I'Egypte, Hist. Nat. Suppl. i. 

 Atlas, Polypes, tab. 2. fig. 5. 



1828. Ne])Jitliea Audouin, Explication sommaire des Planches de 

 polypes de I'Egypte et de la Syrie, publiees par Jules- 

 Cesar Savigny dans : Description de I'Egypte, vol. xxiii. 

 Paris. 



1834. Neplitliya Ehrenberg, Die Corallenthiere des Rothen 

 Meeres, p. 284. 



1846. Neplithya Dana, ' Zoophytes,' Philadelphia, p. 610. 



1857. Neplithya Milne-Edwards, Histoire Naturelle des Ooral- 

 laires, vol. i. p. 127. 



1877. Neplithya Klunzinger, Die Korallthiere des Rothen Meeres, 

 Th. 1, p. 33. 



1887. Nepyhthya Studer, in Arch. Naturg., Jg. 53, vol. i. pp. 19, 

 20. 



1887. Neplithya (pai\s), Danielssen, in ISTorske Nordhavs Exp. 

 vol. V. p. 82. 



1889. Nephthya and /S^jooji^ocZes (pars) Wright k Studer, 'Chal- 

 lenger ' Reports, Zoology, vol. xxxi. p. xxv. 



1895. Spongodes (pars) Holm, in Zool. Jahrb., Bd. 8, p. 24. 



1895. Spongodes (pars) Kiikenthal, in Zool. Anz., Jg. 18, p. 428. 



1896. Nephthya Kiikenthal, in Abh. Senckenb. Gas. Frankfurt, 



vol. xxiii. pp. 89-91. 

 1899. Nephthya May, in Jena Zeitschr. Natiu'w. vol. xxxiii. p. 156. 

 1903. Nephthya Kiikenthal, in Zool. Jahrb., Bd. 19, p. 141. 



lu 1817 Savigny described two genera of Nephthyidre to which 

 he gave the names Ammothee and Nephtliee. Audouin (1828), 



