ON SOME NEW-ZEALAND ACTINIAEIA. 527 



Preliminary Account o£ some New-Zealand Actiniaria. 

 By H. Paequhae.* 



[Bead 7th April, 1898.] 

 (Plate 36.) 

 A FEW years back I began to collect Sea-anemones and make 

 notes on their habits and distribution, and I had hoped before 

 this to have prepared full descriptions with sectional figures 

 of the species found in the neighbourhood of Wellington. 

 Circumstances, however, have prevented me doing so up to the 

 present ; and as it may be some time before I am able to prepare 

 a full report, I give here a preliminary account of a few of 

 the species the position of which I have been able to determiue 

 with certainty. 



It is evident that we have here in New Zealand a rich and 

 extremely interesting Actiniarian fauna. The species appear to 

 be all endemic, while the genera are for the most part widely 

 diffused, and I may mention here one or two points which seem 

 to me to present themselves for investigation. The species 

 known to me appear to fall naturally into three classes as to 

 their geographical distribution : — (1) Species which are extremely 

 abundant at the stations where they occur, but confined to a 

 very limited area of distribution, such as Actinia tenebrosa, and 

 probably Salcampactis viirahilis, Corynactis Saddoni, and Gory- 

 nactis mollis ; (2) species which are abundant at the stations 

 where they occur and have a comparatively large area of 

 distribution, such as Anemonia olivacea, Hutton, Phymactis incon- 

 spicua, Hutton, and Gregoria alhocinctus, Hutton ; (3) species 

 which are not abundant at the stations where they occur, but 

 which have a comparatively wide area of distribution, such as 

 Oulactis plicatus, Hutton, and Actinia"? Thofnsoni f, Coughtrey. 

 A great deal of work will have to be done before it can even be 



* Communicated by T. W. Kirk, F.L.S., F.E.M.S., Government Biologist, 

 Department of Agriculture, New Zealand. 



t This species, which is not uncommon in the neighbourhood of WelUngton, 

 does not belong to the genus Actinia. It will probably form the type of a 

 new genus of the family Antheadte, having a weak sphincter muscle, no marginal 

 spherules, the body-wall smooth and divided into two parts, scapus and 

 capitulum. It was described by Dr. Coughtrey in the Trans. N. Z. Inst. vol. vii. 

 p. 280. Descriptions of Professor Hutton's species mentioned above may be 

 found in the Trans. N. Z. Inst. vol. xi. p. 311. ■ 



