14 McMURRICH 



Family CRIBRINID.E. 



Synonyms. — Bunodidx. Gosse, 1858. 



Tealidre. R. Hertwig, 1882. 

 Bunodaclidae. Verrill, 1890. 



Actiniinae with adherent base, with a strong circumscribed 

 endodermal sphincter ; usually with the column more or less 

 verrucose and frequently with acrorhagi at the margin, these, 

 however, never being ramose or frondose. Perfect mesenteries 

 usually numerous and gonophoric. No cinclides or acontia. 



I have v^entured to employ a new term for the family to which 

 Gosse originally applied the name Bunodidae. The change 

 I have regarded as necessary on the ground that the family 

 name should be a derivative from the name of the typical genus ; 

 my reasons for adopting Cribrina as the name for the typical 

 genus are based upon a strict interpretation of the rules oi pri- 

 ority and are as follows : 



The family Bunodidae was instituted by Gosse ('58) with the 

 genus Bunodes (established in 1 8 5 5) as its type, though previously 

 Milne-Edwards had separated all actinians with verrucose 

 column wall to form his group of actinines verruqueuses. Gosse 

 took as the type of his new genus B. gcmmacea^ a form which 

 had long been known and has been referred by Ehrenberg in 

 1834, to the subgenus Cribrina. An interesting question of 

 priority here arises. The first species mentioned by Ehrenberg 

 under the genus Cribrina, is this very one, and following the 

 rule, it would be taken as the type of the genus. Haddon, how- 

 ever, has adduced reasons ('89) for believing that Ehrenberg 

 regarded the fifth species which he included under Cribrina, 

 namely, the Priapiis polypus of Forskal, as the type, and for this 

 reason retains Gosse's genus. The genus Bunodes certainly 

 cannot be retained, since, as Verrill has pointed out ('99), the 

 term had already been applied in 1854 to a genus of Euryp- 

 teroidea, and it seems better under the circumstances to con- 

 sistently apply the rule and disregard Ehrenberg's possible or 

 one might even say probable intention rather than introduce an 

 entirely new term, such as Bunodactis, proposed by Verrill 



