ART. 14 FOSSIL AND EECENT BEYOZOA CAITU AND BASSLER 89 



Occurrence. — Albatross Station D. 2167, off Habana, Cuba; 23° 10' 

 40" N.; 82° 20' 30" W.; 201 fms.; coral. 

 Albatross Station D. 2320, north of Cuba; 23° 10' 



39" N.; 82° 19' 48" W.; 130 fms.; fine coral. 

 Florida, 218 meters (Smitt). 

 Plesiotypes.—Csit. No. 7459, U.S.N.M. 



BUFFONELLARIA RETICULATA, new species 



Plate 8, Figure 4, text Figure 135 



Description. — The zoarium encrusts nullipores and shells. The 

 zooecia are indistinct; the frontal bears salient reticulations which 

 divide it into small irregular compartments. The aperture is buried 

 at the bottom of an infundibuliform peristomie; its proximal border 

 bears a rounded and deep sinus; the peristome is very salient, thin, 

 nodular, and bears a kind of small avicularium. The ovicell is glob- 

 ular and decorated with two orbicular areas symmetrically arranged ;. 

 it is hyperstomial and is not closed by the operculum. 



-,- ^ A ^ [^a = 0.14 mm. 



Measurements. — Apertura , 



^ [la = 0.12 mm. 



fX0 = 0.40-0.50 mm. 



Zooeciai, ^ _„ 



Us = 0.30 mm. 



Structure. — This is a bizarre species the structure of which has for 

 a time appeared enigmatic; we have finally concluded that the fron- 

 tal reticulations result from the thickening of the olocystal veins 

 characteristic of Bujffonellaria; the young zooecia are deprived of 

 them. The small oral avicularium is rather constant; it appears el- 

 liptic, but on our dried specimens we have not observed the direction 

 of its mandible. 



The operculum is similar to that of Bujffonellaria divergens and 

 bears also two lucidae corresponding to the two condyles of articula- 

 tion. The dimension's are rather variable. 



The exterior aspect of the aperture is deceiving, for it is not in 

 rapport with the true form of the operculum, the rimule of the latter 

 being much wider than the proximal sinus of the aperture. 



The ovicell bears a system of nervelike threads like the frontal, 

 but they are less salient and the principal ones limit the two perfo- 

 rated lateral areas. 



Biology. — Our living specimens were in reproduction March 15, 

 1885. Several of them encrust both sides of shell fragments. This 

 is a rather frequent phenomenon that is diflScult to explain otherwise 

 than by the floating of the substratum. 



Occurrence. — Albatross Station D. 2405, Gulf of Mexico; 28° 45' 

 00" N.; 85° 02' 00" W; 30 fms.; gray sand, broken coral. 



Holotype. —C&t. No. 7460, U.S.N.M. 



