698 Reports on the Zoological Collections made in Torres Straits^ 1888-1889. 



S. marstqnalis, and we agree with him when he says it is " desirable that with an 

 opportunity of more abundant and fresh material, a renewed study should be 

 undertaken to decide whether the received specific characters are variable, and 

 whether all three species should not be united in the single Sphenopus marsupialis 

 {I. c. p. 52). 



Sub-family. Macrocnemin^. 

 PARAZOANTHUS, Hadd. & Shackl, 1891. 



Macrocnemic Zoanthese with a diffuse endodermal sphincter muscle. The body- 

 wall is incrusted. The ectoderm is continuous ; encircling sinus as well as ecto- 

 dermal canals ; lacunae and cell-islets in the mesogloea. Dioecious. Polyps connected 

 by thin coenenchyme. 



This genus is established by us in our second part of the Revision of the British 

 Actinise (1891, p. 653), to which the reader is referred for fuller details. 



TOERES STRAITS SPECIES OF THE GENUS PARAZOANTHUS. 



P. dichroicus, n. sp. 

 P. douglasi, n, sp. 



Parazoanthus dichroicus, n. sp. 

 (PI. Lxi., fig. 15 ; PI. Lxii., fig. 5.) 



Fo7in. — Body short, encrusted with sand and spicules. Capitulum with about 

 eighteen distinct ridges. Coenenchyme encrusting a specimen of Plumularia 

 ramsayi. 



Colour. — Body and coenenchyme, gray ; capitulum, pale-yellow. 



Dimensions. — 2— 2'5 mm. in height; 1"25— 1"5 mm. in diameter. 



Locality — Channel between Mer and Dauar, about 20 fathoms, Jan. 6, 1889. 

 One colony. 



This species rendered the alcohol in which it was preserved strongly dichroic — 

 the colours being yellow and violet ; we have emphasised this fact in its name, 

 which is also appropriate on account of the gray and yellow colour of the polyps. 



Body-wall. — The body-wall is thickly incrusted with foreign bodies, particles of 

 sand, diatoms, ascidian and sponge spicules, &c. (PI. LXir., fig. 5). These are em- 

 bedded in the mesogloea, the ectoderm having for the most part disappeared from 



