188 Notes on Some Act inians from the Bahama Islands, 



Family RHODACTID^. 

 Ricordea florida, Duch & Mich. 1860. 



Synonym: — Heteranthus floridus {D. & M.) McMurrich. 1889. 



In my paper on tlie Bahama Actiniaria I described this form 

 as a species of Klunzinger's genus Heteranthus, disregarding 

 the name bestowed upon it by Duchassaing and Michelotti on the 

 ground that the characters assigned to the genus by those authors 

 were specific rather than generic, and therefore insufficient, while 

 Klunzinger's definition of his genus was quite adequate. Al- 

 though this criticism still seems to me to be just, yet nevertheless 

 according to the strict laws of priority Duchassaing and Miche- 

 lottis' name is the one which should be employed, and I take this 

 opportunity of correcting my error in the matter. 



Attention may also be called to the probability of the genus 

 Homactis established by Yerrill ('69) being identical with Klunzin- 

 ger's Heteranthus, so that it too has a claim prior to Heteranthus, 

 their latter genus not having been established until 187T. Ri- 

 cordea is, however, prior to both, and therefore should supplant 

 them. 



Family ZOANTHID^. 



Zoanthus nymphaeus (Les.). 



Synonyms : — Mammillifera nymphsea, Lesueur, 1817. 

 FalytJioa nymphosa, Dana, 1849. 

 Polythoa {Mammothoa) nymphosa, Andres, 1883. 



In 1817 Lesueur established the genus Mammillifera for the 

 reception of two Zoanthids (which he named M. auricula and M. 

 nymphoea), and characterized the genus as containing those forms 

 which possess " a large cuticular expansion, serving as the base 

 of numerous animals, which, when contracted, assume the form of 

 mammae." Andres ('83) unites this genus with Palythoa, making 

 it a subgenus for which he proposes the name Mammothoa, but 

 this is evidently an error, since he characterized the genus Paly- 

 thoa as having sandy incrustations in the column walls, while 

 Lesueur distinctlj^ gives it to be understood that his species of 

 Mammillifera have fieshy walls. Erdmann in '85 revived Les- 

 ueur's genus, though, as Haddon and Shackleton ('91) have 

 pointed out, it is questionable if the form he referred to the genus 

 can be associated with Lesueur's t3^pe species, and it is interest- 



