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Art. XX. — Descriptions of New, or Little Known, Polyzoa. 



Part I. 

 By P. H. MacGillivray, M.A., M.RC.S., F.L.S. 



(With Plate.) 

 [Read 9th December, 1881.] 



Beania decumbens, n. sp. Fig. 1. 



Cells much elongated ; two or three short spines at the top; 

 spines 14 — 16, on each side, arching over the cell, and those 

 of opposite sides interdigitating ; at each upper angle a small 

 capitate avicularium; connecting tubes springing from the 

 extremities, so that the cells are entirely decumbent. 



Port Phillip Heads, Mr. J. Bracebridge Wilson. 



Spreads in long, irregular lines over calcareous nodules. The 

 connecting tubes are very short, and the cells are almost always 

 arranged end to end, but occasionally one springs from the 

 side of another. In many cells there are one or two tubes 

 from the sides, fixing them to the body on which they grow, 

 or occasionally extending to the sides of a cell of a crossing- 

 series. These tubes are in the situation of the lateral tubes 

 of Diachoris. From the other species of Beania this differs, 

 especially in the cells, in consequence of the connecting tubes 

 springing from their extremities, being entirely decumbent 

 instead of semi- erect. 



Mr. Wilson considers that it ought to be referred to 

 Diachoris, in consequence of the presence of avicularia and 

 the mode of connection of the cells. It agrees with 

 Diachoris in the avicularia, which, however, in the other 

 Beanice are evidently represented by the ear-like processes ; 

 while it agrees with Beania in the connecting tubes being 

 only attached to the ends, or occasionally to the side of a 

 cell. The semi-erect position in the other species is a 

 character of no value, as the same occurs in Diacltoris 

 crotali, where also the avicularia are imperfectly developed. 

 Hincks has recently described a very interesting form, D. 

 intermedia, from Tasmania, in which the connecting tubes 

 are four, and the avicularia very small. The two genera are 



