436 ^^^ Philippine Journal of Science ^'^' 



This description is based on Kiikenthal's description in his 

 revision of the Nephthyidae as I have no example. 



The species was named by Wright and Studer (1889) from 

 a specimen in the Challenger collection from Zamboanga. Studer 

 has also reported it from the Sulu Sea (1894). It is not repre- 

 sented in the alcyonarian collection of the zoological museum of 

 the University of the Philippines, w^hich is not surprising as 

 there are no specimens in the collection from Mindanao or the 

 southern part of the Sulu Sea. 



Capnella philippinensis sp. nov. Plate I, figs. 1 and 2; Plate II, 

 fig. 4 ; Plate III, figs, la, lb, Ic, Id, le. If, Ig, and Ih. 



The compact colony has a short, thick, rigid stem which 

 expands distally and gives off the polyp-bearing lobes directly 

 or the branches which bear them. The branches are short, ^nd 

 divide almost immediately into the conical, distally directed lobes 

 which are from 6 to 11 mm. long and from 4 to 8 mm. thick 

 at the base. The polyps are turned inward and closely packed 

 on the lobes, and are from 1.8 to 2.2 mm. in length and from 

 0.8 to 1.5 mm. in breadth. The tentacles, while they can be 

 folded in over the mouth, often protrude in preserved speci- 

 mens, and are short and blunt with about 12 pairs of short, 

 blunt, closely packed pinnules. In life, however, the tentacles 

 are long, slender, and pointed, giving a lacy appearance to the 

 expanded colony. The ectoderm of the tentacles is filled, 

 especially in the pinnules, with large unicellular algse, probably 

 zoochlorellse, which give to the tentacles their characteristic 

 greenish or brown color. 



The polyp armature consists of a coat, one spicule deep, of 

 capstan-like spicules graduating into f oliaceous clubs at the distal 

 end of the polyp. The capstans average 0.1 mm. in length 

 and 0.075 mm. in greatest breadth. The outer end, which is 

 the larger and broader, is usually more or less spherical in 

 general outline, consisting of a central column from which are 

 given off toothed foliaceous expansions, usually in 4 planes. 

 Between this and the basal portion, which consists of 3 or 4 

 knobbed or bluntly spined root-like processes, is a slender, 

 smooth, cylindrical zone. Viewed from above these spicules 

 appear to be 4-rayed stars, the rays often appearing bifurcated 

 due to the bifurcation of the outer end of the main foliaceous 

 expansion in each plane. Toward the distal end of the polyp 

 the basal portion of these spicules becomes one-sided, one of the 

 root-like processes developing laterally as a long thick spiny 



