FOEAMINIFEEA OF THE KEEIMBA AECHIPELIGO. 621 



Carterina spiculotesta Brady, 1884, FC. p. 346, pi. xli. figs. 7-10. 

 „ „ Millett, 1898, etc., FM. 1899, p. 365. 



Chapman, 1900, FLF. p. 184. 

 „ „ Sidebottom, 1904, etc., RPD. 1905, p. 6, pi. i. fig. 10. 



6 Stations. 



This very rare and interesting species occurs fairly often in these dredgings, but the 

 number of specimens is always small. It occurs in its best development at Stn. 3, 

 and after that the best specimens are from Stn. 11. The individuals found divide 

 naturally into two groups — small and large ; the absence of all intermediate-sized 

 specimens, except in one or two instances, seems to point to the individuals representing 

 not so much growth-stages as racial distinctions. In the small specimens the earlier 

 portions are always much more depressed than in the larger, all the latter with one 

 exception being of a steeply conical type as compared with the flat outspreading test 

 originally figured by Carter. The colour, as described by Carter, Brady, and Side- 

 bottom, is deep brown in the early chambers and white in the subsequent. Some of 

 our small specimens are of a uniform deep colour all over. 



At Stn. IB we found one small individual characterized by a sudden transition 

 at the commencement of the last whorl of chambers, from the strongly marked 

 ferruginous colour to the purely white. 



At Stn. 12 the initial chambers are but very slightly coloured, the colouring-matter 

 only extending over one convolution. At Stn. II one individual was found in which 

 the whole test is very depressed, almost flat on the superior surface, the initial 

 coloured chambers few, and the later ones, after one or two rotaline convolutions, 

 become irregularly annular, the general outline of the test being nearly circular, not 

 " amoebiform " as in Carter's figure. In this particular specimen the spicular bodies 

 also appear to be abnormally small, whereas in others from the same Stn. they are, if 

 anything, above the average size, especially in the earliest chambers of the test. The 

 umbilical hollow in the Kerimba specimens is very often filled in (i.) with agglutinated 

 sand-grains ; this may merely point to the specimen having been sessile on a sandy 

 bottom ; (ii.) with secondary growth which resembles fine arenaceous cement, but may 

 possibly be the same as the granular matter which separates the spicular bodies of the 

 normal shell-wall ; (iii.) with a definite outgrowth of finely arenaceous substance 

 somewhat similar to the young stage of Crithmiina mamilla Goes. In one individual 

 there is a similar outgi'owth on the superior wall of the test; it cannot be stated 

 definitely whether these processes are connected with the Carterina or are merely 

 adherent organisms. 



Carter's original description of Eotalia spiculotesta was based on a single specimen 

 found on a coral in the Pacific (East Oceania) and appears to have been a large {^ in. 

 diam.) and quite abnormal individual in which the regular rotaline arrangement of 

 the early chambers was followed by an irregular series of chambers becoming more and 



