ON FUNICULINA QUADRANGULAEIS AND DIAZONA YIOLACEA. 163 



Spolia R.UNIANA. — I. FunicuUna quadrangidaris (Pallas) and tlie Hebridean 

 Diazona violacea, Savigny. By AV. A. Herdman, F.R.S., F.L.S., Pro- 

 fessor of Zoology in the University of Liverpool. 



(Plates 13 & 14 and 2 Text-figures.) 

 [Read 5tli December, 1912.] 



The main part of our scientific work on board the yacht ' Puna ' is plank- 

 tonic and consists of surface and mid-water horizontal and also of vertical 

 hauls from the deep fjords on the west coast of fecotland. The results of 

 these plankton gatherings are reported on in detail elsewhere *. 



The fish-trawl and the naturalist's dredge, are, however, also used from 

 the yacht as often as can be managed, and I should like occasionally to make 

 known to the Linnean Society any " Spolia Puniana ''■' of special interest or 

 novelty that may be brought up from the sea-bottom during our cruises. 



In the past summer we spent about a month (August 1912) cruising on 

 the west of Scotland, both amongst the inner islands (Mull, Skye, &c.) and 

 also along the chain of the Outer Hebrides from Barra Head to Stornoway, 

 dredging and townetting almost daily. Two of the more interesting animals 

 obtained — the only ones I shall refer to in this communication — were the 

 giant sea-pen Funiadina quadrangidaris (Pallas) and the Compound Ascidian 

 Diazona violacea, Savigny, first described from the Hebrides by Forbes and 

 Goodsir under the name " Syntethys hebridicus/' in 1851. f 



(1) FUNICULINA QUADRANGULARIS {Pallas). 



The late Professor A. Milnes Marshall and his father, Mr. W. P. Marshall, 

 in their little book entitled ' Report on the Oban Pennatulida ' (Birmingham, 

 1882), gave a detailed account of this " rare and interesting species,'"" and of 

 the circumstances under which it was dredged, in 1881, by members of the- 

 Birmingham Natural History Society at two localities in the Firth of Lorn, 

 between Oban and the island of Lismore. It is rather surprising to read 

 that on that occasion only four living specimens and three of the calcareous 

 skeletons were obtained, and that the largest was only 39 inches in length, 

 since we on the 'Puna' this summer brought up a score or more of larger 

 specimens in every haul of the dredge, at that spot, along with very many 

 smaller ones which were thrown back into the sea. Our largest specimen is. 



* Lancashire Sea-Fislieries Laboratory Annual Report for 1912. 

 t See Addendum, p. 171, with, lists of Amphipods and Echinoderms. 

 LINN. JOURN. ZOOLOGY, VOL. XXXII. 15 



